Journal: News & Comment

What is youth?

Permalinks to this entry: individual page or in monthly context. For more material from my journal, visit my home page or the archive.

Yesterday, while watching my kids at the playground, I had a chance to talk to the father of one of my daughter's schoolmates. He told me that he is a career couselor, currently working with "youth at risk." Interestingly, as far as the Canadian government is concerned, "youth" are between 15 and 30 years old.

I'm only 34, so presumably the definition hasn't changed much since I was theoretically a "youth"—but by the time I was 30, I had two kids, had been married for nearly five years, and had been in the workforce for a decade.

More pointedly, there are several countries in which, at age 30, you are probably already in declining health, and might very well not have ten more years to live.

 |