R: Grow Up

With the newly admitted students in town for Bulldog Days, we will discuss the role of maturity and obligation in our society. Many cultural critics have blamed popular media and the educational system for fostering perpetual adolescence within our generation. If this is true, and like Wendy's lost boys we have resolved to never grow up, this could spell danger and disorder for families, communities, and the state. Fifteen million American children live without a father. Too many men have refused to turn their backs on childish things and become leaders in their families, but why? Is there a maturity gap between women and men, and if so, what are the institutional forces that have caused it? For those in the negative of the resolution, "growing up" might stir up some negative associations, like conformity, compromise, and loss of creativity. Are these things inevitable? Are they even undesirable? Is growing up a choice?