> > I could never figure out why there was social maturity in some places and not in others in basically the same place.
>
> Because people are people regardless. TOMatt always likes to "correct" me when I talk about adults having childish drama, and tell me that really, it's the children mimicking what they see the adults do every day.
>

Pretty much. Children aren't smart enough to do anything other than mimic what adults teach them. So-called "High school drama" is socialized into them by cultural institutions. Be it family life, or television, or the books they read. They're only acting out what they know real people (and made-up people) do. Part of it is that children are expected to act this way in school, and part of it is that children are "practicing" the construction of their own societies, and they model them after what they see their elders do.

TOM