I had a frightening feeling the other day that we're not learning from other's mistakes. That we not only expect kids to to make the same idiotic choices we made, but think they must in order to learn the consequences for themselves.

That's a ridiculous proposition, and one that will result in the forever stagnation of our society.

Your 10-year old should have more wisdom than you did at 21. It's not crazy. Have you seen the math 10-year olds do nowadays? I can't do it. We're just setting the bar way too low in other aspects of intellectual maturity.