Hi friends,
Sorry for being late to reply. Before discussing other things, lets first
understand what is age.
Should age be counted only in terms of the number of years one has lived?
Have you not met 50 year olds who are uncouth as teenagers and 20 years old
who are wise as sages?
Do all humans mature and gain wisdom uniformly, with the passing of years?
Are all persons of the same age equally wise and mature?
Is is appropriate for a society, nation or a government to decide whether we
are mature enough for anything or not?
*Ageing* or *aging* (American English) is the accumulation of changes in an
organism or object over time. Aging in humans refers to a multidimensional
process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of
aging grow and expand over time, while others decline. Reaction time, for
example, may slow with age, while knowledge of world events and wisdom may
expand. Research shows that even late in life potential exists for physical,
mental, and social growth and development. Aging is an important part of all
human societies reflecting the biological changes that occur, but also
reflecting cultural and societal conventions.
The term "ageing" is somewhat ambiguous. Distinctions may be made between
"universal ageing" (age changes that all people share) and "probabilistic
ageing" (age changes that may happen to some, but not all people as they
grow older.
Chronological ageing, referring to how old a person is, is arguably the most
straightforward definition of ageing and may be distinguished from "social
ageing" (society's expectations of how people should act as they grow older)
and "biological ageing" (an organism's physical state as it ages). There is
also a distinction between "proximal ageing" (age-based effects that come
about because of factors in the recent past) and "distal ageing" (age-based
differences that can be traced back to a cause early in person's life, such
as childhood.
Differences are sometimes made between populations of children. Divisions
are sometimes made between the young old (65-74), the middle old (75-84) and
the oldest old (those aged 85 and above). However, problematic in this is
that chronological age does not correlate perfectly with functional age,
i.e. two people may be of the same age, but differ in their mental and
physical capacities. Each nation, government and non-government organization
has different ways of classifying age.
Legal
There are variations in many countries as to what age a person legally
becomes an adult.
Most legal systems define a specific age for when an individual is allowed
or obliged to do something. These ages include voting age, drinking age, age
of consent, age of majority, age of criminal responsibility, marriageable
age, age where one can hold public office, and mandatory retirement age.
Admission to a movie for instance, may depend on age according to a motion
picture rating system. A bus fare might be discounted for the young or old.
Similarly in many countries in jurisprudence, the defense of infancy is a
form of defense by which a defendant argues that, at the time a law was
broken, they were not liable for their actions, and thus should not be held
liable for a crime. Many courts recognize that defendants who are considered
to be juveniles may avoid criminal prosecution on account of their age, and
in borderline cases the age of the offender is often held to be a mitigating
circumstance.
* * *
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"English Learner's Cafe" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/english_learners?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
