Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (20579)	8/4/2001 12:12:05 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 82486

The analogy of pitching in the majors is totally irrelevant, since 99.9% of fully developed adults can't do it either. Every 11 year old makes decisions, every day. A lot of them make quite well reasoned decisions. We still provide guidance, of course, but even at that age, we have to trust to some extent to their own decision-making capacity. We don't, can't, and shouldn't watch them every moment. A fully matured adult that has never been allowed to make a decision may have a mature brain, but will still be less able to make decisions than a 17 year old that has, from childhood, been given a gradually increasing scope of experience and training in decision making. I notice that you did not respond to the entire point of my post, which was that it really does not matter whether or not the brain of a 17 year old is sufficiently developed to make decisions regarding sex. 17 year olds still have to make the decision, ready or not. You may think that forbidding it ends the decision-making process, but it doesn't. They still have to decide whether to obey or not. The decision they make will depend largely on what they have been taught and what they have been allowed to experience. if you think your 11 year old has the physical develpment either to pitch in the majors or to make fully reasoned decisions... My 5 year old can make a fully reasoned decision about what she wants to wear to school, who she wants to play with, or what she wants for lunch (she is no nutritionist, but knows and respects the distinction between good food and junk food). My 11 year old can make fully reasoned decisions about somewhat more sophisticated issues. There are also decisions that I would not expect either to be able to make. You cannot break people down into "capable of making decisions" and "incapable of making decisions" based on their level of brain development: as I pointed out before, there are many, many, adults with fully mature brains that make horrendous decisions (including many that involve sex), and many people with immature brains that make responsible decisions. There is also a wide spectrum of decisions to be made: a person ready to make fully reasoned decisions on one issue may not be ready to make fully reasoned decisions on another. Decision-making ability is not suddenly conferred on the day that a certain section of the brain reaches maturity: it is learned, in a gradual process. It is learned much more effectively if it is intelligently taught. Possibly a bit less research and a bit more common sense are called for.