Z reads Anthem
Z's fourth grade teacher is reading Anthem to the class -- out loud. He started by saying that Ayn Rand wrote against socialism, and that the book was relevant today because of the direction in which the country was headed.
posted by objectivistDad at 4:39 PM
5 Comments:
Wow! Is this a private school or a government school? I'm betting the former.
It's a small little private "Montessori".
Many of the teachers are seriously Catholic, but that has not had a significant impact, other than the fact that Z had to write down the 10-commandments once, and that he's banned from taking "The Golden Compass" books to school. (Potter's wizardry is allowed, though.)
His current teacher seems a bit of a libertarian, because Z tells me he had a Ron Paul badge one day. There's a mix of political opinion among the teachers -- his previous one used to drive a tiny car and tell them about "buying American"! And, the teacher before that had some type of anti-abortion sticker on her car.
I'm interested in hearing what the result is. I read _Anthem_ with my child, and we didn't go into the issues of socialism per se, given that I wanted her to discover for herself what the issues in the novel were. Initially, she was confused by the "We" narrator, but with some questions about how it was possible for "us/we" to do actions obviously performable only by one person, she figured it out. We had a fascinating time talking about the many "why" questions the book provokes. I think it also works well with Orwell's _Animal Farm_.
Anyone has good suggestions on how to present Objectivism to a young teen ?
Other than this way ? :)
Your ideas and experiences are welcomed ! Thanks !
Mike@
Bonus points to that teacher! Montessori schools are looking better by the hour from all I've heard about them.
I think the entirety of my school-issued intro to Anthem was, "We should be finished with it soon; it's not very long." =) Or, on second thought: =(
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