Lol, that's what every parent says. I'm not saying it's not true in your case, but...every parent says that. Doesn't really speak volumes about the larger picture.
I'm not talking about some piecemeal plan. It's a systemic adjustment to changing trends. At the same time, the latest generation is riving less than any generation since the boom of the American automobile. So the effects of delaying driver licenses will not be the same as it might have been on your generation, back when the Flintstones braking system was just hitting the market, amiright??? :lamo
Gosh, I'm not advising we delay their entrance into society. How about we back off the college push in senior year to let them work/volunteer until their early to mid-20's before they head off to the university? Let them get all the stupid teenager crap out of their systems before embarking on one of the most expensive undertakings of their lives up to that point. Let them work at McDonald's and learn how to make money and learn why saving is important, how to show up on time, how to taker directions from your boss, etc? Why send an 18 y/o fresh out of the shelter of HS into the big world of college campuses when you can send a older, more experienced early twenty year old into it, one who might have a more complete picture of how being a responsible adult is supposed to be?
How about instead we make a collective effort to infuse them with a bit of a sense of responsibility when they are IN High School?
I went to a local HS a few days ago, while I was working. Entered the parking lot carefully and went slow... no teenagers in sight... good thing I went slow, cuz suddenly a door flew open and a dozen teenage boys (dressed out for PE) came barrelling out, running at top speed. I'd swear in a court of law that NOT ONE OF THEM looked to the left or the right, they ran right in front of my truck and were either utterly oblivious to the near presence of multi-ton squashification or assumed that some magical property of being under 19 would protect them from 75 horsepower wrapped in steel.
As it happens I was far more alert than they, and far more aware of the mortal nature of Man, fortunately for them.
To me, it is inexcuseable that those YOUNG MEN (in many previous societies, they would have been considered young ADULTS at that age, able to marry and subject to military service) apparently grew up with a total lack of comprehension that their bodies are mortal and that no mystical force will save them from their own stupidity just because they are young.
The problem isn't that the age of majority is too young, the problem is our society isn't requiring our kids to grow up and become adults.
Next I went to the middle-school, and that was even worse. Apparently the adolescents there have yet to realize that there is a universe that exists beyond their texting into their cellphones and on the other side of their friends' faces.... let alone that there are things in that universe that might hurt.
I mean dayum, I expected better sense out of my kid when he was 10. Maybe that is
why I
got better sense out of him.
The whole experience made me wonder if we need to have Hunger Games or something... :roll: