But it hardly provides useful experience in making meaningful decisions. Similarly, the Springfield High School principal who cancelled a school play rather than allow a girl to play a male part had the legal power to do so. It was the director, however, who respected the ability of his teenage actors to act as adults. Other examples abound. More and more communities impose curfews on people under 18.
Some states revoke drivers licenses of high school dropouts.
Pregnant girls often need parental or judicial permission to obtain an abortion. Teenagers under 18 cannot vote even if they understand better than their parents the political issues they study in school. Kids caught with cigarettes in Rochester now pay a fine. Alcohol, which was available at 18 partly to let people old enough to die in Vietnam have a beer first, is now again illegal until 21. The list goes on, and its length doesn't really surprise us.