I think this might have something to do with all the nonsense we see going on with recruits and commitments and school choices:
NEW YORK (CBS) ― The teenage brain continues to puzzle adults, especially parents. After all, teens are given plenty of adult responsibilities, but why does it seem like teens are the best at irrational decision-making?
"I think part of it is hormones," New York parent, Joe Vericker, Sr. says.
Doctors say the root of the problem lies even deeper than that. "There is something more complicated occurring with the way that the brain is managing information that occurs in adults and doesn't happen in kids," says Dr. David J. Langer of Roosevelt Hospital.
Now a study out of Pittsburgh says 13- to 17-year-olds simply seem to be wired differently than adults, and their brains just aren't as mature.
"A lot of their difficulty with making decisions or making bad decisions for that matter has to do with a sort of lack of experience and wanting to try new things," Langer says.
But he says that's only part of the story.
"The other is clearly maturation and experience and memory," Langer says.
Researchers say that as teenagers mature their brains lose unwanted and unnecessary nerve connections. They think more efficiently, and some would say, responsibly. But until then, bad and sometimes risky decisions may be hard-wired into the brain.
So, they need guidance.
"At times it works and at other times she has to learn on her own -- that's the only way we learn," parent Gwen Alexis says.
"You can't learn unless you fail and it's kind of like if you don't burn yourself on a candle you'll never know that it's hot," Langer adds.
"If you raised them right in the house then when they go out on their own and they have risky business -- you just hope they make the right decisions," Vericker Sr. says.