Posted on 05/22/2013 3:04:57 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
If the 18 year old was a male, would there be the same outcry? Is this a different situation?
Should not matter if its a male or a female or gay or not.
Adults should know better
(In a Brooklyn Accent) OH!
Don't worry, we agree.
My point was that even if this hadn't been a lesbian couple, the stuff being said about "hey, our great-grandparents did it and they got married!" doesn't apply for two reasons:
1) Marriage of minors under age 18 requires the consent of parents in most and likely all states.
2) Just because somebody got married at 16 a hundred years ago doesn't mean they "had to get married." Back then, lots of people ended their schooling after their eighth-grade graduation. A 16-year-old young man could easily have been out of school for two years and been an independent wage-earner, or working on his father's farm. A 16-year-old young woman might have been out of school for two years and working as a nanny or as a seamstress or in a garment factory. None of those were great jobs, but an eighth-grade education was all that a lot of people thought was needed back then, and it qualified people for the jobs which back then were the entry door to lower-middle-class independent financial status.
Arguably, an eighth-grader back in 1913 knew more about basic math and spelling and American history and the core books of American literature than lots of high school or even college graduates today, but that's a different issue. My daughter attends a strongly conservative Christian school and she doesn't have to deal with the problem of bad teachers and bad curriculum.
Good points all. And for sure any student back then who had successfully completed 8th grade would be far, far ahead of just about any high school or even 4 yr college graduate today in history, basic math, grammar, general knowledge (without bias) - and character training.
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