When Do Kids Become Adults

Great Essays
When do kids become adults? A question that's frequently debated across the world, and for good reason too. The answers to this question impact when people are given certain responsibilities, greatly affecting the overall population. For example, if people were allowed to drive at the age of thirteen, we may or may not have more accidents. This would affect not only those 13 year olds, but everyone else involved. After reading many different perspectives on this issue, I believe that becoming an adult cannot be determined by just one thing. It's a combination of brain maturity, social maturity, and independence. Different parts of the brain mature at different times, but all parts are needed to scientifically become an adult. “There …show more content…
It also is the most prevalent aspect of adulthood that will occur in your life, making it crucial for development. This is an obstacle faced by everyone, everywhere in the world, except for the few recluse humans who have never seen another person. It can be afflicted by culture, but always remains the same at the core and that is to be polite, and understand beyond yourself. These two things are what drive almost every interaction and determine if you have or have not left childhood behind. For example, in Marigolds, Lizabeth doesn't see past her selfish needs and acts foolishly to avoid her problems. This is what categorizes someone's maturity. Once she “understands beyond herself” and is “polite” in the way that she deals with dilemmas, she becomes an adult and with that, becomes much more capable of developing other adult traits, specifically the ability to comprehend someone's emotional attachments. “That was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began. That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood. For as I gazed at the immobile face with the sad, weary eyes, I gazed upon a kind of reality hidden to childhood.” (Collier, Marigolds) In Marigolds, this is known as losing innocence, or ignorance, and gaining compassion. “The years have put words to the things that I knew in that moment, and as I look back upon it, I know that that moment marked …show more content…
One particularly brutal one takes place in the Brazilian Amazon. There is an indigenous tribe in that area called the Sateré-Mawé that makes boys go through what is called bullet ant initiation in order to be considered a man. Boys 13 years of age stick their hands in gloves filled with bullet ants, a species of ant with an excruciating sting, and have to keep their hands in for a ten, whole minutes. They do this over many times and until they don't cry out, as showing the pain signifies weakness. “In preparation for the initiation rite, the elders of the tribe collect the ants from the jungle. These ants are drugged and placed stinger- first into special gloves woven from leaves. As the drug wears off, the ants become increasingly agitated and are raring to sting. This is when the boy puts on the gloves and lets the bullet ants work their magic.” I personally don't agree with this, however I do think that to grow up you need to know how to control yourself and this definitely would be a way of doing

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Numerous people can connect with a story that they read or is specifically for them. Also, they have a purpose to be told to everyone. “Marigolds” is just like an example for almost everyone. Adulthood can be very difficult. Ultimately, it all work outs later in the future.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Juveniles and Capitol Punishment: Extending Eight Amendment protections Samuel Joseph Joest Arizona State University Abstract Introduction Is it cruel to sentence a minor to death? Is it right to end the life of a juvenile so early with no chance to rehabilitate and change into a better person? What about sentencing them to life without the chance of parole? Never getting the chance to be rehabilitated to more mature people. In the early days of the justice system, juveniles were treated no different from adults and were sentenced to the same punishments.…

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Adulthood pathway A lot of controversies exist about what age a person should be considered a legal adult. An adult is a person who has attained the age of majority or maturity. The age of majority is the legally defined age at which a person is considered an adult, with all the attendant rights and responsibilities of adulthood.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    So, what makes someone be considered an adult when they grow up? When they’re 18, 25 or when they’re above 18, but they’re fully mature before the age of 25. So why do people say the age should be 18, even though there are many 18 year olds who are considered an “adult” but still don’t make the right decisions for themselves and can’t even take care of themselves? Same goes for 25, why should that age be considered an adult? Well the most reasonable answer to determine adulthood is when they’re mature…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Can Teens Decide for Themselves? “Rates of deaths by injury between ages 15 to 19 are about six times, that of the ages 10 and 14… as with reproductive hormones, stress hormones can have complex effects on the brain, and as a result, behavior” (Teen Brain: Under Construction). Are 18-year olds mature enough to make life decisions? The answer is no. Many 18-year olds may think they are mature enough to make adult like decisions yet in reality, they make reckless and risky choices.…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I studied brain and behaviour during my first year of clinical medicine, and found that I was particularly intrigued by neuroscience. Throughout my year at Barts and the London, I thought a lot about whether the course was right for me, and began considering other options. I struggled to feel passionate about the course and my future as a doctor, but decided to complete the year to confirm my feeling that a career in medicine was not right for me. During this year, however, I developed a particular interest in the study of the brain, brain development and human behaviour. These lectures became the highlight of the year, and made me really keen to learn more about the subject.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When do kids become adults? A child becomes an adult when all of the frontal lobe is completely developed. Although it has become controversial, kids can not be held to the same standards as adults because their brain does not work in the same way. The reason this topic is so important is because the strictness of punishment for any child whose brain has not developed yet, especially those who only commit minor crimes. Most parts of the brain that control decision-making are not fully developed until the early to mid 20s.…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Criminals, murders, and rapists are being discharged from prison regular in the wake of serving just short and permissive sentences. Who are these offenders and what makes them so unique? The culprits are adolescents who carry out grown-up unlawful acts. They are being attempted consistently in adolescent courts, and are accepting lesser sentences, and they are being discharged and given new characters to keep on living their lives in serene and upbeat euphoria, all while the victims and families suffer. “Should minors receive a lenient sentence?” has become a controversy question among the country.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We all have an opinion about the appropriate age for adult responsibility some. Some say that the right age is 18, others say that it should be raised to at least 25. Well in the article “Age of Responsibility,” by Alan Greenblatt, talks about the two age difference and discusses the positives, and the negatives of each age difference. The Age of Responsibility should be at the age of 18, because kids get more mature, and take responsibility at that age.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Scientist have proven that brain cells keep developing until we turn twenty-five. Most of teens actions are always questioned. Scientist are always questioning why we do what we do, how our brain is affected by our actions. Many of the laws made in countries around the world have scientific data. Children’s brain are not developed therefore they often act in an inappropriate manner, actions that if adults perform them they would get a bigger punishment; that’s due to the fact that their brains have developed therefore they know better, they can distinguish what is right and wrong.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Adolescence is the important transition period from a little dependent kid to an independent adult. Many people believe that teenager’s brain only grow bigger in this period, however, the teenager’s brain is neither an “older” little kid’s brain, nor a half mature adult brain (Giedd, 2008). In fact, a teenager’s brain is developing at one of the most complex stages in their lifetime. The period of puberty also is defined as the most troublesome time. When people talk about teenagers, they always connect them with words like adventure, trouble-maker, aggressiveness, self-centeredness, or radicalness, etc.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Responsibility is a concept with which everyone is familiar. We have had to be responsible for something since we were toddlers. The amount and severity of things we had responsibility over has increased as we got older. Therefore, is it reasonable to set an age for when people should start to be responsible? That is the controversial topic at hand.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article written by Julie Beck entitled “When Are You Really an Adult?” she uses a series of true life accounts to attempt to define when a person becomes an adult and what defines adulthood. She begins with the real life example of Henry David Thoreau and catches the attention of the reader by leading them down the path that she is talking about a current day young man. However, when she reveals she is talking of a young man of years past it is obvious that many different generations struggle with the definition and thought of being an adult. Beck makes it clear that what defines being an adult is not clear, there is no black and white answer. There are many factors leading to whether a person feels they have become an adult.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mathew Issac Issac 1 Professor Batorsky WRT 101 11/30/2016 Brain Development Does the question " Why is he/she smarter than me? " brush through your mind whenever you see that someone always gets better grades than you do? Brain development is affected by certain factors that include both physiological as well as environmental. However, the influence of these factors must be equalized for maximum brain functionality. The brain is considered as many things at once by different people.…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sixteen year old drivers aren’t the safest drivers on the road. Why should we decrease the legal driving age to fourteen? We shouldn’t! Evidence shows us that at the age of 14, the frontal lobe is developing, and traits such as maturity and responsibility are lacking. The legal driving age should not lower to fourteen.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays