The neuroscience I was referring to deals with the fact that parts of the brain that perceive danger are not developed even in the late teens. This is in fact a very good argument for not allowing teens to drive cars! (or serve in the military!!) Many states have compromised by issuing drivers licenses in stages, tied to the age of the driver. After all, a disproportionate number of drivers who cause accidents are young (also inexperienced, I know). Uh-oh, here come the angry posts of teen drivers... wait, take out the "angry posts" part!
The functioning of militaries (well, the Real military and not the Air Force) throughout history have been predicated on the idea of teenagers and young men with more balls than sense. In fact, all war is predicated on it.
What you say about neurological development is true and no one is denying this. Teenagers don't perceive
risk (this is the word you were looking for, not danger) in the same way older people do. There's also a difference in genders.
The trouble comes when you start applying biological reasoning to entire populations with no concern paid to outliers. This discussion started with Abby Sunderland, who is obviously not a run of the mill kid. In some ways, this young woman probably has a better head on her shoulders than most. Yet some would like to apply the ageist argument that because she's 16, she's simply incapable of 'feats' of sailing than someone two, three years her senior? Now THAT notion is ridiculous.
Plus there's a whole line of reasoning that goes that certain physical skills can only be taught at a young age before people start developing a sense of physical risk.
For the most part teenagers are dumb *****. When I turned 21 I thought I was all grown up. I
am 30 now and looking back now I don't think I really grew up until 25.
I'm older than you are by a few years and I can tell you than I'm still nowhere near being a "grown-up." The only thing I've realized about growing up is that all those people who I thought were grown-ups that came before me and I looked up to were doing the same thing I'm doing now, which is making **** up as the go along and hoping things turn out okay.
I was probably a much bigger dumbass than you when I was 16. In fact, I'd say my failures were pretty spectacular. When I was 16, I'd already managed to fail out of college (in the US sense, university for RoW readers) mostly because the only thing I really cared about was fighting and fight sports. I would later manage to repeat this little feat of academic self destruction before earning my first set of bachelors degrees. By my 17th birthday, I had already lost two professional fights by KO. By 18, I'd managed to get myself choked unconscious several times in collegiate judo competition in Korea and Japan, (and more than once by future Olympians) because I was too stupid to tap. Two weeks after I turned 18, I walked into the ROTC building saying "Sign me up! I want the contract that lets me jump out of airplanes and helicopters." Fast forward a few years and it turns out that I don't really believe in war. Too bad I signed that contract when I was 18. Doh.
My entire teens were about trying to go too far, too fast while losing massive amounts of brain cells along the way. And yet I don't regret a moment of it because I had the chance to make those mistakes on my own merits. Or lack of merit. And even though I'm still (physically) paying for those mistakes.
I see teenagers being coddled by society, turned into overgrown children - and in this instance, I am using the phrase pejoratively - who jump at shadows, fear the unknown and are incapable of forming their own thoughts; who are always looking for an authority figure to protect them from what they don't understand, who are afraid to try new things and learn more about the world around them; people who aren't capable of taking responsibility for their own actions and are always on the lookout for someone else to blame.
This is what you end up with when you're not allowed to stand on your own two feet, fail and then get back up.
So what's the worst that can happen for the teenagers who reach a little too far while trying to excel? A couple of them take themselves out of the gene pool? Small price to pay for a truly free society.
/rant
BTW, That wasn't personally directed at you, MacNut. Rant just kinda got out of hand.
