Aphoristic Wisdom

This semester I'm teaching American Literature. While I'm not going through the canon chronologically because I opted for a thematic approach, I nevertheless threw Benjamin Franklin in the first week, because the excerpt from his autobiography in our textbook fits nicely with the theme of this unit: Identity (the other two themes will be Rebellion and Survival).

We also read some aphorisms from "Poor Richard's Almanac," and before I had students write their own, more modern bits of "Street Wisdom" and "School Wisdom," I asked them to pick three aphorisms from "Poor Richard's" and translate them into something more modern-sounding.

One girl chose to work with "He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas."

Her translation: "Practice safe sex."

She got an A.