Ask Dr. Helen: How Can I Keep My Students From Becoming Little Marxists?
BTW, for those of you that think that Rand is too hard for high school or junior high, remember Anthem. A simpler, more graceful sci-fi novel is hard to find, and it is directly relevant to the challenges we face today.
We the living, while somewhat more mature in its outlook and content is a rich and moving romance, with very little formal philosophical exposition. It too is directly, almost journalistically relevant to our continuing confrontation with Russia, China, N. Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.
Both are in their own ways celebrations of the heroic spirit and the importance of reason and intellectual independence.
They are well within the reach of a moderately literate high school student. And Anthem particularly is easy for Junior High students to grasp.
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I will add that I and most of my friends read most of the dystopian novels before the end of high school.
That is: Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World, Island, Fahrenheit 451.
Most of us were well served by the experience.
It has been a tragic disappointment and a real eye opener to watch over the years as some of us remembered and applied the lessons we learned then, and others simply forgot and became the villains and victims we read about back when.
So yes, Fountainhead and Atlas may be a bit much for the average student till college (we produce so many semi-literates and illiterates these days) although they are within the reach of the brighter kids.
But Anthem and We The Living should be fine, and I strongly recommend them.
