Galt's Gulch

Atlas Shrugged as American Literature

Posted by fivedollargold 13 years ago to Books
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Just out of curiosity, do any of you recall an English teacher in either high school or college assigning Atlas Shrugged?

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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 13 years ago
    My govt teacher senior year of high school said he thought it should be taught in freshman lit, but we never read it. The most surprising book I had read as an assignment was John Knowles' 'A Separate Peace', in 4th grade. I was a bit of an advanced reader... Eudora Welty was another interesting author..
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  • Posted by overmanwarrior 13 years ago
    I have heard that some have, in high school. But not many, only the really rebellious teachers. There have been kids who have told me their teacher told them to read the book. Some are getting it in college too. Doc Thompson from The Blaze radio show told me that's where he first read it, in first year literature. But I think those are exceptions and certainly not the rule. I think Atlas should be read before any kid leaves the 8th grade. The sex is no more spectacular than Romeo and Juliet, and most kids get that in Freshman English.

    But these days I'm against public education completely and think we should teach our kids to read Atlas in the third grade so they are acting like John Galt by the time they are in the sixth grade. Then they'd be inventing engines and all kinds of cool stuff by the time they are 18 and 19 years old.
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  • Posted by khalling 13 years ago
    my daughter did her HS senior project on AS though
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    • Posted by fivedollargold 13 years ago
      I hope she got an "A."
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      • Posted by khalling 13 years ago
        she did fivedollar. it was a good process for her to go through. not only reading the book, but sweating the teacher's reaction as well as the students'. so much of the student body was focused on giving back to the community and downplaying privileged. she went to the hoity toitey rich school in town. If anything, those kids tiptoed around the city, at sporting and other events, including going to the mall because of where they went to school. some of that is normal HS stuff, but the over reaction of low profile instead of being proud of their standing in the state-high test scores, number of students to get a graduate degree etc. was kind of mind boggling. to balance this, I will say, schools in affluent neighborhoods were also the first targets for drugs. and that did have an impact. I should say, it is a public school, not private
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