Actually, i needed to read all of them And i was using Piaget who was saying that last stadium in cognitive development is getting formed from 11 till 16 age. However, there are some researches which are claiming that 1/2 college students fail at some formal operation tasks and 1/3 of adults never develop it completely. But the point is - when you pass 16 years, age is not a thing which makes someone better formatted, nor intelectually nor emotionally. All biological phases of human development are finished till 16 years of age. The only difference is in quantity of informations more mature people can posses. But quality is the same. If 16yo is in contact with important information he/she has ability to process it in a 'right' way. To claim that 16yo is not formatted enough to live/think/emote 'as adults' in an outside world (just because is 16yo and not 26yo) is simply not right from a scientific point of view.
This is supported by some of my friends who are teaching on high school /university. They all agree that their pupils can be "formatted" to some 15/16, what they don't get till that time (like the will to gain information, the love for study and for subjects etc., ability to process information etc.) they won't gain any later. That's why one of them, despite being highly valued university teacher, decided to teach on high school, because "that's the last time we can really do something with them".