My Opinions Used to Matter When I Was Young

Today while I was in class, my instructor said something that spurred some thoughts from me. He was making a point and said “I remember I thought my opinions were important, because I was young.” And this made me wonder, why does society tell us that youth are unable to have intelligent and profound ideas and opinions? There is a great irony in this, because society is obsessed with maintaining youth was we age, yet as we age we express how we have gained wisdom.
Arguments can be made that age does generally equal experience. This is true, if we are only considering volume of experience. However; this is generally regarded to mean the same thing as age equals knowledge. This is not true, age is not equivalent to knowledge, even though obviously it is related. One could not expect a third grader to understand the finer points of quantum mechanics, but then again, just because somebody is 50, doesn’t mean they understand it either. We all have different experiences and therefore different reactions and understandings of the world around us.
Knowledge itself is also not related to age, 200 years ago, the knowledge that was available for a man to gain was seriously limited in it’s scope. Today, a man half the age of a scholar of 200 years prior can have just as much relevant knowledge. Because of this fact, it is important to ask why age is a deciding factor. If we can accept that knowledge is easier to accumulate because of the age we live in, then why is it impossible to accept that certain people may have had experiences that have given them more than adequate knowledge about some things? This means that we should be evaluated on mental capacity and ability rather than age.
We have all heard the story of the semi truck that attempted to drive under a bridge that was too low. The trailer got wedged underneath and would not budge. The fire department, engineers and police could not figure how to dislodge the vehicle. A mother and her little boy were walking by, and the boy looks at the situation and asks his mother “How come they don’t let the air out of the tires?”. This solution proved to be most effective.
It seems to me that age is the most common form of prejudice in this world. We set age limits on many things like driving, smoking, drinking, ect. However we all know somebody who abuses alcohol, or who is a terrible driver despite their age. There is nothing magical that happens to a person as soon as they turn a year older that would allow them to more effectively or safely engage in some activities. All I want to say is that we should all listen to what the other has to say, because you never know what you might learn.