Why are we trying to make our youngsters grow at a faster pace? Why don't we allow them to mature naturally? It is already bad enough that our youth, once they reach the age of 16, are legally allowed to drink alcohol even though we adults know that it is detrimental to their health when taken without control. We are exposing our youngsters too early to the adult environment, which unfortunately is not a healthy one.

Dolores Cristina, Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, in her comment piece Yes to Reform (August 22) states when referring to youth that "...theirs is a vulnerable age. It is also the age when they are assuming new responsibilities, some of which on occasion go beyond their age." It is precisely because 16-year-olds are in a very crucial stage in their formation that they should not get actively involved in partisan politics. By giving 16-year-olds the right to vote they are assuming a responsibility beyond their age.

We have to admit that the vast majority of 16-year-olds have, at this stage, not yet reached full maturity. They have just finished their secondary school and most of them are still puzzled about what career to take up. Recommending that 16-year-olds be given the right to vote is distracting our youngsters from what their priorities should be at a very crucial stage in their lives. As was clearly affirmed in the editorial (August 21) "... the age is too critical in terms of personal development for those who belong to it to be channelled away from First Things."

Let us allow our youth to grow and mature at their own pace and let us not hurry them to take decisions at an earlier age when they should be more with enhancing their overall growth rather than contesting elections. Not only should we not lower the age of voting to 16 but for the good of our youth and that of society at large let the age of drinking alcohol be legally raised to 18.