For decades, sociologists have documented the phenomenon of extended adolescence. This is where someone who is an adult still acts like a teenager. One classic example would be 35-year-old who has part of their rent and bills covered by parents and continues to take college classes.

Jean Twenge in her latest research on the trailing edge millennials (who she calls iGen) are extending this phenomenon ever further. She documents that teenagers are becoming adults even later than the last generation. She argues that teens today are less prepared for adulthood. She also adds that they are safer, since the rates of car accidents and teen pregnancies have fallen dramatically.

Fewer 12th graders have tried alcohol. Back in 1994, 85 percent had tried alcohol. Today, only 66 percent have tried alcohol. Only 73 percent of 12th graders have drivers’ licenses, down from 85 percent twenty years ago.

One of the more dramatic differences can be found in social dating. Only about half (58%) of them had been on a date. Compare that to 83 percent of 12th graders who had been on a date back in 1994 by their senior year.

Another dramatic difference is one that we have talked about in the past: work experience. About half (56%) of 12th graders have worked for pay, which is down from 72 percent in 1994. Many more are taking college prep classes or hanging out at home.

All of these dramatic changes have resulted in a relative new term being used by sociologists: emerging adulthood. This is their attempt to describe a new life stage between adolescence and adulthood.

All of this reminds me of the jingle, “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys-R-Us kid.” Maybe its time for adults to say to the kids: its time to grow up.

You can ask millions of Americans if they would like a better job, and the resounding answer is yes. Unfortunately, many of them are unqualified for that job for reasons other than their academic training.

The U.S. Labor Department says there are a record 6.2 million jobs currently available in this country. Many of those jobs won’t be filled because the unemployed don’t have the right academic credentials, but many others won’t be filled because many candidates lack what are called “soft skills.”

A recent Wall Street Journal article cited studies that found rudeness and disrespect on the job were a major problem in many companies. They found that when pressed at work, manners vanish. This shows up in many ways: ignoring a colleague’s email request, snapping at someone in the meeting, and interrupting a conversation. Many employers say a recent college graduate often cannot write an email that will not embarrass their company.

A recent article in Inc.com tries to explain why millennials are so unhappy at work. The Gallup Organization found that 71 percent are not engaged in their job. The article goes on to say that if someone’s expectations are lower than what occurs in reality, that person will be happy with the outcome. If someone has high expectations, then they will feel let down.

The disparity between expectation and reality is the reason so many millennials are unhappy. We might also add that millennials often have high ambition and a belief they are special. This can also contribute to their unhappiness.

When you put all of these factors together, you can see why millions and millions of Americans would like a better job. But you can also see why that desire may be unfulfilled. They may not be academically or socially or emotionally prepared to get that better job.

Many universities have been using various regulations and excuses to restrict free speech on campus. What may surprise many Americans is the fact that so many millennials believe restricting free speech on campus is necessary.

Nearly half of the millennials polled in a recent University of Chicago survey say that colleges should limit freedom of speech “in extreme cases.” This would include limiting what they perceive as offensive language or even costumes that stereotype certain racial and ethnic groups.

Actually the desire to restrict free speech goes beyond merely using university rules to prevent speakers on campus. Another study done by a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles found that one-fifth of undergraduates say it is acceptable to use physical force to silence a speaker who makes “offensive and hurtful statements.” When students were asked, whether the First Amendment protects “hate speech,” 4 in 10 said no. That is not correct.

Why do so many college students believe that physical force can be used to stop free speech? One reason is their belief that speech is violence. If that is the case, then violence can be used to stop speech they believe is violent.

Jonathan Haidt, in his book The Fragile Generation, laments what he calls “concept creep.” He argues that when a word like “violence” is allowed to creep so that it includes a lot of things that are not violence, this causes what he calls “a cascade of bad effects.” One of those is the belief that people can use violence against certain types of free speech.

Constitutional illiteracy about First Amendment freedoms coupled with a redefinition of words like violence, have given us a world where many college students willingly accept various attempts to restrict free speech.

Americans don’t know much about the Constitution, and it apparently is getting worse. Nine years ago, I wrote and recorded a commentary about constitutional illiteracy.

Back then I quoted John Whitehead (Rutherford Institute) who testified before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning the rule of law. He provided some alarming statistics based upon a survey done about ten years ago.

They found that only one in four Americans could name more than one of the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. In one study, they found that only one person out of 1,000 people could name all five First Amendment freedoms. Those would be the freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly, along with the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I thought about those statistics when I read an editorial written by Cal Thomas. He quoted from a recent poll conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. They found that 37 percent of those interviewed could not name ANY of the five rights protected in the First Amendment.

Nearly a decade ago we were lamenting how few could name more than one of the First Amendment freedoms. Today, more than a third cannot name any of the freedoms in the First Amendment.

Americans are not only ignorant of the Constitution; many are ignorant of the structure of our government. A third (33%) could not name one of the three branches of government. About a fourth (26%) could correctly name all three.

Unfortunately, some of these Americans who are ignorant of the Constitution and ignorant of our government actually vote in elections. You can’t protect the rights guaranteed in the Constitution if you don’t know what they are. You can’t protect our system of government if you don’t know how it is structured. I hope you can see that we have lots of work to do to educate Americans about the Constitution.

I think it is fair to say that our culture has managed to politicize just about everything. The last two weeks of NFL football are merely the latest vivid illustration of how everything has become political.

This didn’t begin with Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the national anthem. And it certainly began long before Donald Trump became president and intensified the debate with his speeches and tweets. And it even began before ESPN decided to act more like a political talk program rather than a sports channel.

Last week the editors at the Wall Street Journal explained why we need some areas of our life that are not dominated by political thought. “Healthy democracies have ample room for politics but leave a larger space for civil society and culture that unites more than divides. With the politicization of the National Football League and the national anthem, the Divided States of America are exhibiting a very unhealthy level of polarization and mistrust.”

Politics has also been a part of education, especially higher education for some time. Political correctness led to attempts to prevent certain professors from gaining tenure and kept certain speakers from even being allowed to speak on campus. Universities may say they believe in free speech, but I think we all know that certain religious views and political views are essentially banned from the academy.

Politics has now become part of the business world. Certain social and political views are not allowed. Just ask employees at Google and Mozilla who lost their jobs because one wrote a memo about gender and diversity and the other gave a donation to support traditional marriage.

No wonder America is so polarized. Everything has become political.