When you work with teenagers, sometimes you make the mistake of thinking they are more mature than they really are. Obviously, age doesn't equal maturity and that is never so obvious as when you have very young men (14-15) who have full size bodies (over 6 foot for example).
The tendency is there to view them as mature as their bodies and that's just not true. Actually, I feel sorry for them. If they are of either gender, older individuals will target them as "fresh meat". Adults see them as people who should, by virtue of their size or physical prowess, as being more mature than their peers.
There's a real disconnect when one of these over developed kids does something childlike. It is as though we want to hurry up their growing up. The body has arrived, why hasn't the brain.
Why is it that we seem to want to hasten maturity in the young, when later in life, we wish we had the carefree days of our youth?
Maybe we just can't stand the age of innocence to be enjoyed if we can't be the ones enjoying it...
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