The leftist jargon drives me crazy, too. For example - whoever coined the word "herstory" has a lot to answer for. That's a crime against linguistics and history both.

I think you're right about the perpetual kid syndrome in North America, though. I've seen it a lot, too - not surprisingly, in parent-teacher interviews where the reason for the interview was that the student wasn't doing some aspect of their job. Like parent, like child. . .