David Brooks wrote yesterday on the fact that women seem to be doing better than men at all levels of education, which I will link to if TimesSelect allows me to. More women than men are graduating from college; fewer women are diagnosed with learning disorders, etc.

Along the way, he throws this bone to Larry Summers: ” For 30 years, attention has focused on feminine equality. During that time honest discussion of innate differences has been stifled (ask Larry Summers). It’s time to look at the other half.”

Huh.

I’m fascinated by how conservatives have turned Summers into a free-speech martyr; they’re certainly not aware of Summers’ own attempts to discourage free speech at Harvard. (Zayed Yasin, anyone?)

I think Brooks fundamentally misreads what happened with Summers. No one was saying that the president of Harvard doesn’t have the right to speak on any subject he wants to talk about. The frustration over Summers’ remarks on women in the sciences came from the fact that, many experts in the field believed, he was speaking out of ignorance, and his opinion reflected a personal bias more than an informed opinion. Coming from the man in the highest position in the world of higher education, these things matter; the words of the president of Harvard have consequences.

The right to free speech does not deprive listeners of the ability to react with outrage…and nothing in the Summers’ matter suggests that there was no “honest discussion” of the status of women in the sciences. There was a great deal of it—millions of words—and virtually all of them, except, perhaps, from Steve Pinker and the political right, felt that Summers’ opinion was wrong.

So by all means, let us have open and honest discussion of all the factors that might contribute to educational differences between boys and girls. But when we start talking about innate differences—i.e., genetics—we are on volatile ground, and we need to remember that, and conduct our discussions with the nuance and sensitivity for which David Brooks is known and Larry Summers is not.