(2008-11-03) Gringrich Adolescence

Newt Gingrich thinks we need to drop the Model of Adolescence. Adolescence was invented in the 19th century to enable middle-class families to keep their children out of sweatshops. But it has degenerated into a process of enforced boredom and age segregation that has produced one of the most destructive social arrangements in human history: consigning 13-year-old males to learning from 15-year-old males... It's time to change this - to shift to serious work, learning, and responsibility at age 13 instead of age 30. In other words, replace adolescence with young adulthood. But hastening that transition requires integrating learning into life and work. (Network Of Learning)

Stowe Boyd thinks The notion that we can intentionally roll back social forces - like the modern notion of adolescence - that are Culture-wide, is just preposterous.