Author, Hilary Mantel, created a furor recently when she suggested girls were ready to have babies at 14. While I am in no way agreeing with her on that, it did occur to me to wonder whether we are keeping young people at school too long and not allowing them to grow up.
Years ago some of us will know from our own experience, others will know from parents and grandparents that young people left school much earlier. By 14-16 they had finished with school and were out in the workforce. In some case it was even earlier than that. Being out in the work force earlier they tended to mature earlier.
On the whole back then, only those studying to be teachers or those wanting to be a doctor or vet or some other profession went onto to do their leaving certificate or HSC. (Higher School Certificate) or its equivalent.
These days in Australia young people do not leave high school till 17 or 18 and then the majority goes onto further study at university or TAFE. By the time they have finished university or college they can be well into their 20s, even older if they do a PHD or second degree.
No-one would deny that by this time they should have gained a lot of knowledge in various subjects but how much of it is knowledge that is going to be useful to them as they progress through life? Would they be better off being out in the work force learning more practical life skills and experience? And if they did leave earlier would they be able to get a job anyway? Would it put too much pressure on the already increasing problem of unemployment?
In times past, it was really easy to walk out of one job into another. These days it is not so easy. Many employers are asking for not just HSC but university degrees before they will even consider employing people and some even requiring qualifications from the right school, university or college.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on any of these issues.
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