Does age matter in education?

[sunfire]

As many of you might know, I am a Filipino. I studied twelve years in a Filipino school and transferred to an international school that follows the American Curriculum for my last two years of secondary education.

For people who do not have an idea, Filipino education is almost identical to the United States' curriculum except that ours has no middle school which means we go directly to high school after grade 6. (Well, actually middle school is grade 6, 7, and 8). That also means that we finish high school by Grade 10 and go to college at the age of 16 (This is rather the case in majority of the schools in the Phils.)

Okay, I need your opinions. Do you think age matters when it comes to education? I made a scrutiny between the systems of the Filipino and American. I find that the American system has a lot more advantages plus more favourable. One aspect is the age, I do believe that 18 is the right age to start college.

What do you think? (pls. give opinions abt. d 2 systems too.