Aphoristic Idiocy

by Julia Sneden

(One-line life lessons best forgotten)

A while back, a friend sent me an email containing lots of unattributed quotations on the subject of being old. I happen to enjoy quotations, and keep a file of those that I particularly like, but when they come without attribution, I am hesitant to pass them along. In fact, I find that not having the name of the author makes me really uncomfortable.

It was Thomas Mann who said: “A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Perhaps so, but the Web has shown us that there are many clever writers out there, and it seems to me that if you’re able to condense a truth into a snappy little adage or snippet of advice, you should have the courage to append your name to it. Granted, aphorisms don’t exactly qualify as great literature, but a succinct bit of well-phrased truth, be it painful or amusing, calls for someone to step up and claim responsibility.

That said, there are times when an author may not want to be identified, for fear of cranky readers like me, who want to take exception to their words. It’s just as well that the following two quotes from the aforementioned email didn’t have the author’s name appended.

The first was: “When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.”

The second read: “Ah, being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.”

About the first: my initial reaction was “O, clever!” I figure that the author had a hard time, as I did, with algebra, and was now able to laugh at the experience.

But then that triggered in me this chain reaction: why have educators long claimed that boys aren’t ready to learn how to read, or for that matter to sit quietly in a classroom, as early as girls are, while those same educators are just now beginning to admit the possibility that girls may not be ready for algebra or other math as early as boys are? It’s about time that somebody did some deep research to find out why those differences occur. Do they indicate sex-related differences in our brains? Are they the result of cultural expectations? Have those expectations developed from ancient imperatives, with boys being encouraged from an early age to pursue more physical/spatial activities (hunters/spear-throwers), or girls more quiet ones (planters/gatherers)? Is there any justification for either idea in this modern age? If not, why are we still stuck with them? Or if brain development is sexually determined, why are so many girls good math students and so many boys wonderful readers and writers? And how should education be modified by the results of the answers we uncover?