A Staff Divided
I am an economics teacher at a high school. Last month the Ayn Rand Institute sent me a class set of Atlas Shrugged along with a teacher guide. I assigned it to my econ class. Most of the students are actually enjoying the book although it can be dense for the teenage mind. About 1/2 the class wants to participate in the essay contest. What do I get in return? About a 1/2 dozen teachers praising me for having the courage to assign the book, and a bunch of them telling me they hope parent complaints will come in to force me to not use it anymore.
Good news, getting thanks from parents.
Bad News, sneers and jeers from my teaching colleagues.
One administrator "expressed concern" over the assignment being controversial. I pointed out that it is on the STATE approved reading list.
Good news, getting thanks from parents.
Bad News, sneers and jeers from my teaching colleagues.
One administrator "expressed concern" over the assignment being controversial. I pointed out that it is on the STATE approved reading list.
You're a rarity. I congratulate you.
Isn't education the exposure to many ideas?
By the way I never liked Salinger.
He (gasp!) photocopied the chapter, passed out a copy to each student, and proceeded to read it out loud in class.
Naturally, some parents complained that he was "teaching Communism." My response, published in our local newspaper's Letters to the Editor, was that we cannot fight something we know nothing about.
I know you still have to work with your dissenting colleagues but the students and parents are much more important. You might have reached some parents who needed it too.
Good Work!!!
"In this powerful, uncompromising work, Ayn Rand cuts through the confusion surrounding modern collectivist thought and reveals the New Left as it really is. For the first time, a clear definition is given to the many forms of the movement, from hippie-ism to activism; it's origins and nature are analyzed and placed in historical and philosophical perspective......"
I wanted to know more about the nature of Steve Mallory's "Beast" in the The Fountainhead. I'm discovering it!
Thanks again for exposing your students to her work.
Ought to be illuminating!
From a teacher and parent.
I have concern as well, that the idealism of those who seek to limit the discussion of economics to economic models leaning toward socialism or mixed economies will grant them license, in their minds, to shut down the discussion in the greater "good" of protecting the children from evil "capitalists" and the "1%".
I'm sad you are going through the sneers and jeers. I've seen it myself standing amongst them and stunned at the change of focus from "freedom and equality" to "Socialism".
It's not what my parents and I fought for.
Thank you for your efforts. Know that there are those of us Democrats fighting on this side as well, as small as our numbers are, to encourage dialogue and discussion of all ideas.
Keep speaking up!
Hmmm.... Share paychecks, raises and awards?
Glad I missed THAT boat...
If that were not so they would have seen AS for what it is and a love story between individuals it is not. It is about the love of self. This reveals far more than you realize, for the moment. How many parents do you believe have read the book?
It would be interesting to read what the students write.
"Capitalism - The Unknown Ideal" ?
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