Age is Just a Number #ageapartheid

Age...

What on earth is age? A measure of how many times the earth has rotated around the sun since one has been alive?

I mean, sure, it is a convenient measure of quantifying time. But why have we chosen to standardise our laws, and interactions, based on this grouping of 365 times the earth rotates around its axis before completing one revolution around the splendid sun?

Speak English, Francis

So marriage age; driving age; legal age for drinking; age before which one can be prosecuted. These are immensely important, and yet we choose an arbitrary number as if this has the same effect on everyone.

What about age groupings? People are entered into various educational levels depending on how long they have lived. This must follow the assumption that one’s biological brain development is largely proportional to the time one has been alive. Is it convenient? Sure it is, but I don’t understand how practical, accurate or effective it is. In fact, in the context of education, I think this is remarkably problematic.

Different minds work well with different things. In school, I would finish our assigned Maths problems within minutes of the class, and wait around doing nothing until the class ended; whereas, remembering dates and events in History class would take me far longer than the average student. I was dumbed down by not being upgraded in Science classes, whilst the humanities students were dumbed down waiting for me. But surely we had to be in the same class; we were the same age! It is even more problematic that so much research has been done showing the harms of ‘age grading’ and yet it continues to be the standard in education.

I was a 10 year old who towered over my contemporaries vertically and horizontally. I grew a mustache before many (Pakistani genes: awkward pubescent phase hits right at birth). Many girls developed breasts, and went through puberty at very different times, leading to so many self esteem problems, and unnecessary psychological issues; yet, they were the same age; surely they must all Have developed at the same time. Why did the fact that we had lived the same number of bundles of 365 days, qualify us for the same treatment in the eyes of the law, educational system, and society?

Nurture most definitely plays a grand part in one’s personal development. Whether we use a fluffy term like ‘emotional maturity’, or something more concrete like ‘experience’, a 6 year old in Dagenham will be of a very different age to a 6 year old in the tribal areas of Waziristan. We all know 30 year olds who act like they are 12, and vice versa. We even know that one’s biological age can be very different to one's ‘actual’ age. Depending on one’s diet and extra-cirricular habits, one’s body can be much older than the age. A 40 year old boxer will be younger than a 20 year old smoking, drinking, obese person.

So produce thy scientific rationale for taking age as thy weapon of choice for how you judge me, and I shall produce mine. Let us see who comes out on top.

For anyone feeling down because their ‘birthday’ means they are a ‘year older’, let us think carefully about the most effective ways of measuring people’s wisdom, maturity and effectiveness in society. I assure you, age has very little to do with it.