Back in the olden days, it was common to find 14 year old young men leaving home to look for work, and for 15-16 year old ladies (sometimes younger) to be married off to much older men.
We have become coddled thinking our postwar suburbanized "controlled" culture is the historical norm. It isn't.
I agree that current societal norms of postponing responsible adulthood until - well, late 20s? College is for wild party times, etc.
It’s a very long topic, but the education system, besides being run and saturated by leftists and leftist garbage, has many other failures. High schools should teach practical work skills, for one, and to assume that everyone needs to go to college is beyond silly and a terrible wastse of money, time and human lives.
Apprenticeship was standard for teenagers throughout history and is excellent. Currently there are so many tangled laws that it is hard for any entrepenuer, what to speak of hiring young teenagers or working out apprenticeships.
When I was young (born in 1950) it was common for young teenagers to work in the summer, including ag jobs. Not any more, there are laws preventing such, even on the parents’ farm.
The entire system of how children are educated (what to speak of the huge % of fatherless children and slut mothers), is a terrible problem that will not be solved overnight. And the rot didn’t start yesterday.