Ask Dr. Helen: How Can I Keep My Students From Becoming Little Marxists?
I agree that Rand is hard for many students to read. She makes a point and then spends many pages belaboring it. Heinlein is better for middle school and high school. ” Time Enough for Love” pithy truisms are great quotes. ” Tunnel in the sky” is good for students figuring how to survive in the wild and how to govern themselves.
” Get the first shot off fast, that gives enough time to make the second perfect” That quote is not conservative or liberal but is does make sense in reality. Heinlein does get these points across and he was a more libertarian thinker. He helped me in the early 1970′s conteract the liberal thinking that was just strating to appear.
Kids get the emotional grounding from home, liberals have been a great majority in cities and the children ideas reflect their parents ideas.
If a child states ” Bush created 9/11″ then ask why the child believes that. It may not help that child but the other students may think critically when the student fails to give reasons and facts to back up her statement. A teacher should not belittle a child but gently challenge the assumption.
Most schools do require “1984, AnimalFarm and Farenheit 451″ to be read. Most students don’t get the parable or how thoses stories relate to their own lives.
But high school and middle school students love lessons that challenge dogma. That is easy to do and engages most kids. Those lessons help open minds to think.
