It's not a terribly good use of time for people who actually like to learn. I dropped out of two high schools, including a gifted and talented program - who the hell knows how I got into that one, but I dropped it as well. It really seemed like obedience school to me - capricious, arbitrary, with a focus on discipline and not on learning. A number of times, I would fail a class where I was in the top five most talented people in it. I didn't see much point in doing what they prescribed - I'd rather go explore the world or play around on a computer or read books or go make some money.

I left home at 16, and eventually wound up graduating high school by going into an adult learning center at age 17 or so. I said, "I am fully emancipated, and living as an adult. I would like to complete the adult program." After some talking with a very nice fellow and being politely evasive, he agreed. I took a series of competency exams, completed the silliest multiple choice packet of American history I've ever seen, and I was awarded a diploma. I went and took the standardized tests and got into university. They were kind enough to loan or grant me almost my full tuition, though I dropped out of university once as well. Same reasons.

Anywho, with a quick perusal of history, it's pretty obvious that maturity does not come from age, it comes from having unique experiences and learning from them. If you see someone who is forced to become "head of household" at a young age due to parents illness and cares for his/her siblings, they are very mature and adultlike even in their mid-teens. Likewise, people dragged into a war move differently, with less naivete - characteristics you'd usually see in someone in their 40's. There's kids in their mid-20's with that look.

At least, that's the hypothesis I made: Unique experiences and learning from them = maturity. So I set out to have a lot of unique experiences, and I think I did rather a good job. I've had an interesting, enjoyable life. The only part I regret is wasting my age 13/14/15/16 years in middle school and high school. I had some fun with extracurricular activities and friends, but I could have done something so much more interesting during the actual classtime. Yuck.

One in particular that made me wake up when I read it was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was third of Japan's great unifiers. In the 1600's, he founded the Tokugawa Shogunate - his family ruined in almost complete peace for 250 years after one of the most lawless and brutal times in Japanese history. Ieyasu married for the first time at age 13 or 14, and was Captain of a small division of troops around the 14/15 years. He did a pretty admirable job of it, grew up fast, and the rest is history.

But I think the flipside is true, too - if you don't let someone have responsibility, if you treat them like a child, they'll stay childlike and immature. Being an American who has traveled, I see people who are age 26-28 who are barely capable of functioning in the world, and I sometimes see people age 14-18 doing amazing things. This could be the norm, if we wanted it to.

I had a 17 year old fellow apply to work for me - he was half-generation American, if I've got the terminology right - he immigrated here with his parents around age 10 or so. I didn't wind up hiring him, but I became a mentor to him. We'd go get tea or coffee every couple weeks and I'd give him some generally no-BS advise. A very good guy, he's done some really impressive things in a short period of time - all he had to do was shake off the reigns and shackles, but that is harder than it sounds to do. At least in the average American school, they punish you swiftly, thoroughly, and publicly if you try to abstain or dare to question them. There's the occasional good teacher - I had maybe a dozen excellent professional teachers in my life, which I count myself quite lucky to have had. But the rest? Well, I guess we shouldn't be too hard on them. They're just doing what they were taught, too.