Adults Only?

If asked, most of us would say that we are involved in adult education.    But what makes an adult?    Who do we include (and exclude) from that definition?

Biologically, the answer is simple.    We become adults at puberty:   “the process of physical changes by which a child’s body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction.”   In developed countries, most individuals are capable of reproduction by 15 years old.    So adulthood starts at 15, if not before.

But most societies resist that.    They delay full participation until later.    For most that comes at 18, though there are variations:   Men in China cannot marry before 22, for example;   women in Lebanon can marry as young as 9.    But for most purposes, in most societies, 18 is the age of majority.

In education, however, there are those who argue that “adulthood” comes even later.    Tom Schuller, Director of the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning (IFLL), in a recent bulletin, argued that “adult learning” doesn’t start until 25.   

“The age at which most people in the UK – bar a few doctoral students – have finished their initial education is 25.    Most finish well before, and some of these have already re-entered the education system.    But 25 is a pretty good cut-off point – better anyway than 16, 18 or 21.

“Other factors also speak in favour.    Neuroscience tells us that the physical brain finally matures around the age of 25.    It’s the age at which many young people who engage in crime grow beyond criminal activity, and we could do with a clearer transition bridge for them to find their way back into education and work.

“In short, it’s roughly the age when young people more or less settle into a more stable pattern of life, professionally and personally, having explored various identities and various parts of the world.”

Such arguments may well convince the sociologist, seeking a neat and tidy solution to an otherwise messy definitional dilemma.    But they bother me.

So many of our social and educational problems spring from our separation of childhood from adulthood and, more especially, the almost universal tendency to extend childhood into adulthood;   to delay the transition beyond what nature suggests.

As one wag put it, most of our problems arise either from adults masquerading as children, or children masquerading as adults.

That's not to argue against the theories of Clive Bromhall and others that staying young is the secret of human success.    I'm sure they're right.    But you can have too much of a good thing.

After all, we condemn our kids as being irresponsible, yet stifle all those natural forces which might help them develop the mores and responsibilities of adults at the appropriate age.

Give kids the freedom, motivation and responsibility to learn for themselves, and they will carry those behaviour patterns into adulthood;   lifelong learning will happen almost despite itself.

Insist that adults can learn but kids have to be taught, and we will stay stuck in “learning-is-a-burden land” for evermore.

17th December, 2008
Source: Quodlibs 319

Links:

Wikipedia on Puberty (retrieved 05-02-2009)
Clive Bromhall, The Eternal Child (retrieved 05-02-2009)
Wikipedia on the age of Majority (retrieved 05-02-2009)
IFLL Bulletin (retrieved 05-02-2009)

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