I can't speak for everyone but I want to say it was valuable for me to be separated from my family at that age and put in another semi-structured environment like college. My family was incredibly supportive, well-roundeded, upper-middle-class, and therefore I lived in a neighbourhood surrounded mostly by other families from my background. Being able to be separated from that environment and exposed to a diverse background of wealth/privilege was incredibly helpful to my capacity for empathy and willingness to be wrong. (I went to a state college in a primarily working class city.)