Universities and the effective age of majority

[Pointedstick]

Found at http://www.unz.com/isteve/eric-posner-c ... not-heard/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... _codes_stu...

… And this brings me to the most important overlooked fact about speech and sex code debates. Society seems to be moving the age of majority from 18 to 21 or 22. We are increasingly treating college-age students as quasi-children who need protection from some of life’s harsh realities while they complete the larval stage of their lives. Many critics of these codes discern this transformation but misinterpret it. They complain that universities are treating adults like children. The problem is that universities have been treating children like adults.

A lot of the controversies about campus life become clearer from this perspective. Youngsters do dumb things. They suffer from impulse control. They fail to say no to a sexual encounter they do not want, or they misinterpret a no as yes, or in public debate they undermine their own arguments by being needlessly offensive. Scientific research confirms that brain development continues well into a person’s 20s. High schools are accustomed to dealing with the cognitive limitations of their charges. They see their mission as advancing the autonomy of students rather than assuming that it is already in place. They socialize as well as educate children to act civilly by punishing them if they don’t. Universities have gradually realized that they must take the same approach to college students.

My take: how does acting on the assumption assuming that adulthood starts ever later aid the process of maturing children into adults? From whom little is expected, little will be returned…

[Mountaineer]

Found at http://www.unz.com/isteve/eric-posner-c ... not-heard/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... _codes_stu...

… And this brings me to the most important overlooked fact about speech and sex code debates. Society seems to be moving the age of majority from 18 to 21 or 22. We are increasingly treating college-age students as quasi-children who need protection from some of life’s harsh realities while they complete the larval stage of their lives. Many critics of these codes discern this transformation but misinterpret it. They complain that universities are treating adults like children. The problem is that universities have been treating children like adults.

A lot of the controversies about campus life become clearer from this perspective. Youngsters do dumb things. They suffer from impulse control. They fail to say no to a sexual encounter they do not want, or they misinterpret a no as yes, or in public debate they undermine their own arguments by being needlessly offensive. Scientific research confirms that brain development continues well into a person’s 20s. High schools are accustomed to dealing with the cognitive limitations of their charges. They see their mission as advancing the autonomy of students rather than assuming that it is already in place. They socialize as well as educate children to act civilly by punishing them if they don’t. Universities have gradually realized that they must take the same approach to college students.

My take: how does acting on the assumption assuming that adulthood starts ever later aid the process of maturing children into adults? From whom little is expected, little will be returned…

For some strange reason, your post reminded me of stories about 10 year olds having a rifle and going out to hunt alone for the family meal.  Today, a 10 year old with a rifle ------ we would be trying to jail the parents and calling in SWAT.  We are breeding a much less responsible society now, all ages, than a hundred or two years ago.  Progress?  Maybe, but also Regress in several areas.

... Mountaineer

[Pointedstick]

I found this commend on the unz.com article discussing the piece to be right on the money:

http://www.unz.com/isteve/eric-posner-c ... ent-873528

“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”? — Orwell, 1984

Orwell saw the 60?s generation for what they would become when they were just a sparkle in their parents’ eyes. They view themselves and their “revolution”? as one of expanding rights and equality, an overturning of exhausted and confining social convention, and a liberation of the human consciousness. And what did it all add up to:

Limitations on free-speeech, including research-based academic discourse.

The shaming, stigmatization, and potential unemployment of anyone who voices a point of view contrary to their ideology (in some Western nations, this is already a crime).

A sexual morality so full of internal contradictions that no one can really live up to its ideal of an absolute libertinism which somehow never leads to feelings of resentment, jealousy, exploitation, abandonment, or lonliness and self loathing. So long as we all follow the rules laid out by our self-proclaimed gurus, and forget all about human nature, we’ll all get along just fine. Oh, and don’t forget to use a condom while you’re doing it.

The indefinite postponement of adulthood, with the ultimate goal of extending adolescence to the grave.

Abolition of any understanding of the need to make trade offs and hard choices.

A refusal to understand that the cleverer component of the millenial generation already takes their worldview about as seriously as they did the politics of Richard Nixon, Ronald Regan, George Wallace, and Jesse Helms.

They may not be mocked, they may not be disagreed with, they are not subject to irony or satire, and they must be at all times agreed with, if not venerated, because after all, they broke down the barriers to justice and equality and liberated every oppressed soul from Columbia, South Carolina to Cape Town, South Africa.

[Benko]

PS,

"So long as we all follow the rules laid out by our self-proclaimed gurus, and forget all about human nature, we’ll all get along just fine"

Forget  this just being about sex.  This applies to everything.

[madbean]

some ages of our country's founders

Marquis de Lafayette, 18
James Monroe, 18
Gilbert Stuart, 20
Aaron Burr, 20
Alexander Hamilton, 21
Betsy Ross, 24
James Madison, 25

we are in a age of maturity decline, largely due to our age segregated school system, in the one room schoolhouse days (pre civil war) kids studied and interacted with older and more mature students and learned by their example, they also often worked alongside and interacted with adults..

Maybe the age of maturation is increasing in line with increasing lifespans.

first admiral of the us navy

"David Farragut's naval career began as a midshipman when he was nine years old, Farragut was 12 years old when, during the War of 1812, he was given the assignment to bring a ship captured by the Essex safely to port."

unless i am mistaken he captained the ship, lead the crew, and navigated (sailed) it from south America to the united states
.... age 12....

[Mountaineer]

Maybe the age of maturation is increasing in line with increasing lifespans.

Age at death:

Lafayette - almost 77

Monroe - 73

Stuart - 74

Hamilton - 47 or 49 - gunshot

Burr - 80

Ross - 84

Madison - 85

... Mountaineer

[MachineGhost]

My take: how does acting on the assumption assuming that adulthood starts ever later aid the process of maturing children into adults? From whom little is expected, little will be returned…

It minimizes the damage to onself and others to not give them liberty so soon.  College is a huge free for all compared to high school, lacking parental and "authority" supervision.

[stone]

I think it starts much earlier. Because children of 5 to 10 are deemed incapable of any responsibility at all, it is then a big ask to get adults as teenagers. In the UK in the 1970s most children (from age 5) used to walk by themselves to and from school and to and from after-school or weekend activities. In more recent decades, parents are expected to ferry children to and fro. Children are now constantly in a controlled environment.

I guess no one wants to be the last 10% of parents who let their children lose. People are comfortable with having their children wandering the streets so long as the streets are also full of everyone else's children.

I must admit I was flabbergasted to see little children herding cattle in Kenya, within sight of lions. Those children had to keep the cattle in a close, neat formation because any strays would be at risk of predation. Presumably the cattle were very valuable.  An even more extreme example was in a TV show about child workers in Bangladesh. They were working and living in a glass jar factory. The whole place was full of molten glass and shattered glass fragments. They had no safety equipment (bare feet) and the place was apparently insanely hot. Obviously that is all a nightmare.

first admiral of the us navy

"David Farragut's naval career began as a midshipman when he was nine years old, Farragut was 12 years old when, during the War of 1812, he was given the assignment to bring a ship captured by the Essex safely to port."

unless i am mistaken he captained the ship, lead the crew, and navigated (sailed) it from south America to the united states   
.... age 12....

I guess there are plenty of child soldiers today too:

i would be surprised if any of them can pilot a large sailing vessel or lead a crew.. most modern child solders are uneducated, and forced or drugged into service..

i think what the loss of maturity realty comes down to is the (world wide) adoption of the Prussian model of education. The separation of kids by age where they have only adult authority and top down control of their actions as an example to learn, in a system designed by/for the Prussian king to create unthinking obedient solders... prior to that children were classically educated and taught to think critically. As critical thinking takes hold so does maturity and the ability for sound decision making regardless of chronological age. The other aspect of this was mentioned in the Fred on economics thread, the other reason for perpetual child hood is modern industry creating holding pens for the extra workers and the need for unthinking obedient labor on factory floors in the industrial revolution.

i am truly grateful that i was one of the last of the free range children and given the ability to wander, explore and make important decisions by my self from a very young age, i suspect it has had a invaluable influence on my life and character..