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David Cornejo-Meza
Mr. Millstein
ENGL 114B
April 4, 2018
Childish Adults?: Why Adolescents Can’t be an Adult at 18
When the topic of teenagers handling their own responsibilities comes into conversation
it can be a bit controversial. Examples such as whether or not an 18 year old should be allowed
to drink, smoke, join the military, and even get tried in the justice system as an adult are all
topics that have been debated on with the same concept in mind: Are 18 year olds responsible
enough to take on the role as an adult? After research and personal experiences, I have come to
the conclusion that adolescents should not be considered an adult at the age of 18. There are a
confounding number of variables that lead me to regard 18 year olds as children. The mind is not
fully developed, 18 year olds cannot handle responsibilities nearly as adequate as a 25 year old,
and 18 year olds are simply irresponsible. These are just some of the many reasons we cannot
regard these teenagers as “grown-ups”.
At the age of 18, teenagers are not prepared to be an adult. A teen does not simply wake
up on their 18th birthday and view the world from a full-fledged adult’s perspective. According
to Elizabeth Scott, a professor of law at Columbia University, "Their brains are still maturing.”
In fact, the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain that controls impulses, solve problems,
regulate emotions and organize behavior) is merely 50% developed at the age of 18. The age of
complete development for this part of the brain is actually around 25. Beatriz Luna, professor of
psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh stated, “Although the brains of
youngsters were capable of acting like sensible adults, they were often overridden by signals
which encouraged them to seek out risk.” At the age of an adolescent, they are hard-wired to act
as a kid despite their sense of maturity. This could be a problem when we have so-called adults
conducting themselves as immature adolescents and getting into large amounts of trouble, then,
being tried in the justice system as an adult because the legal age of adulthood in the U.S. is 18.
Instead, to combat this, the age to be considered a complete adult should be 25. This may seem a
bit lengthy. However, given the stated facts and common sense that an 18 year old can’t conduct
themselves nearly as well as a 25 year old, this may actually an ideal way to justify an adult.
18 year olds are not nearly as responsible as 25 year olds. Teens are not taught in school
how to pay bills or live on their own. Instead, they are taught various useless information. Take
physical education (P.E.) for example. P.E. is a useless requirement. No child needs to know
how to run a mile under a certain amount of time. It also sometimes humiliates the overweight
students who are slower than the athletic ones and it is unnecessary to children with actual
academic interests. A team of researchers from Peninsula Medical School in the U.K. presented
findings from a study of physical activity in 206 children. The study took three schools: One that
averaged 9.2 hours a week in mandatory exercise, the other that averaged only 2.4. and the other
that averaged 1.7. At the end of the study, they found that, "No matter how much P.E. they got
during school hours, by the end of the day, the kids from the three schools had moved around
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about the same amount, at about the same intensity." according to the team of researchers. I'm
not saying P.E. should be eliminated from the curriculum, but I am saying it should be
eliminated as a requirement.
When an adolescent goes from being nurtured at 17, then suddenly being expected to act
like an independent adult at the age of 18, it blindsides them. With that in mind, 25 year olds do
know how to perform such tasks because they have either had the chance to be taught, or have
been able to find out on their own through time. 18 year olds on the other hand, have been too
focused on graduating high school and enjoying their adolescence to feel the need to learn about
such adult-performed tasks. I do understand that there may be some outliers that were either
taught by their parents to conduct themselves as an adult by the age of 18 or even some children
that needed to grow up a little quicker to accommodate for personal situations. Growing up, my
older brother, younger sister and I were parented by a single mother who worked two jobs just to
be able to pay the rent and keep food on our plates. With this in mind, my brother and I knew we
had to take on responsibilities other children did not. We had to take care of the house, help raise
our little sister, cook, and clean, etc. all before the age of ten. By the time I was 14 years old I
was already driving to the store to buy groceries and conducting myself as an adult. Now that I
am 18, and legally an adult, I feel no different. And, there’s still multiple things I need to learn as
an adult. There’s no doubt that by the age of 25 I’d have being an adult mastered, but I still
realize that despite having grown up at such a young age, I’m still not ready to be considered a
complete adult. Therefore, I can’t even begin to imagine how a child that has been cared for their
whole life would take on the role as an adult at the young age of 18.
18 year olds just don’t know how to be an adult and they can’t be blamed. In high school,
they’re considered a kid. They have to follow childish rules like raising their hand to go to the
restroom and attend detention for being late to class. Once these teens get to college however,
they’re expected to act completely different. Because they are now an “adult”, they are expected
to register for their own classes, attend class at their own will, seek out their own help if needed
etc. This is difficult when just the previous year in high school, they were being told what to do
and how to do it, their classes were registered for them, and they were being helped throughout
the year.
18 year olds are immature even after age 18. They are far more prone to partying, doing
drugs and drunk driving. In fact, according to MADD statistics, in 2013, “9.9 million people
(3.8% of the population) reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs. This was highest
among 18-25 year olds, where 10.6% reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs.” So,
these adolescents are far too irresponsible to even be considered as adults.
Some may say that it doesn’t make sense not to be an adult at the age of 18 because then
we’d have a bunch of children in the military wielding guns. I do agree with this actually. I also
believe it’s tragic that even though the government does consider these “adults” mature enough
to wield artillery and fight, it still doesn’t consider them mature enough to drink alcohol until age
21, or rent a car until age 25. To combat this issue, the government should simply keep 18 year
olds out of the military at least until they turn 25. This would make for mature, fully developed
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adults to be fighting instead of immature and developing teens who are risking their lives and not
realizing they still have a whole life ahead of them. Besides, a lot of these teens do not have the
physical and mental capability to withstand harsh training and war conditions which could lead
to these adolescents having PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) by the time they are
discharged.
Teens aren't prepared for adulthood. A child can't be expected to conduct themselves as
well as an elder simply because they are both 18 or over. There is an obvious difference in
maturity between the ages of 18 and 25. An unknown person said, "When a person enters their
mid 20's to early 30's, they should no longer act as they did when they were in high school." This
doesn't apply to 18 year olds however. For a lot of teens this age are still attending high school.