I think that assumption is faulty.

What's to say that the act of bearing children doesn't help finish the development of the brain? Or, closer to my original argument, raising children?

It is western industrialized society that has largely created the nuclear family of mum, dad and kids, IMO. Grandparents live their own lives and so do aunts and uncles. I'm generalizing, but in my limited research, non-industrialized societies aren't like that. Children are raised by more people than just their parents. And in a way, the parents are still undergoing education from their peers and elders and having their own children is likely to be a vital part of that.

In addition, many such societies have a type of initiation process to turn children into adults. It differs between boys and girls, of course, because they have different things to learn. And it is not always the tribal trial anthropologists write about and what you would normally associate with 'initiation': farming communities in Sussex in the 1500's would have had a recognisable process for boys to become men (and girls to become women). And the Jewish Bar Mitzvah is part of the same ancient process for Jewish societies. Many of them happen in the period of 12-15 years old, after which these newly minted adults are usually considered candidates for having their own children. Not fully mature yet? :-) These social groups have been around for many centuries. And a lot of the problems with where 'adulthood' starts is a relatively recent phenomenon.

I agree that education is important, but it is too limited and too short-sighted. It needs to include parental education about how to handle the transition their child is making, and oft-times how the parents themselves can finish their own transition. This is hard.

Wade.