Location: Lost in my own mind. Enter at your own risk.
Unread post
I think even 16 is too young to drive for some kids. They aren't mature enough, and they don't pay close attention to what they are doing. 14 is way too young.
Hm. I want to say that it probably varies case by case, like most things in life. Like, MY 14-year-old, specifically, wasn't quite mature enough that I would have trusted him to drive safely. I also cannot imagine any scenario where any 14-year-old in my area would ever need to drive themselves. There's always someone around who can give them a ride or some other means of transportation for them at that age.
That said, I don't really want to dismiss it offhand either. I suppose that circumstances matter. In farm country, I would assume that those kids were handling farm vehicles before 14 anyway. I'm not blind to hardship either. Kids have to go to school somehow. 14-year-olds driving is far from ideal, but I'm not going to give myself authority to judge something I don't know. If there's no other way, then I guess this is less bad than kids getting inadequate or no education because they can't physically get to school.
tl;dr: I don't like it, but I don't have a better alternative either, so, lesser evil.