Was Ayn Rand required reading in your HS?

[Skink]

Or is it just Texas?

[bigwillq]

1. Not in mine

I live in CT

[Pubs_R_Racist]

50. No but 1984, Brave New World and Lord of the Flies were

this was mid-late 70's Fla believe it or not.

[bigwillq]

56. Hello

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[sakabatou]

63. They were required in my middle school

[treestar]

2. No.

I read The Fountainhead out of curiosity.

Later, also read her essays out of same, just to see what she had to say since she was talked about.

[MineralMan]

3. It sure wasn't in mine, but I graduated in 1963...

so, that may be irrelevant.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Think some teachers in my school may have pushed it but none of mine did

I can remember other kids walking around with the book in school.

I remember Native Son and The Jungle being required reading but I was too stupid to appreciate them until I became more mature.

Don

[Poll_Blind]

5. No, that would be effing INSANE.

PB

[Tikki]

6. No

Tikki

[individual rights]

7. Of course...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

59. Why ''of course''? Most people here are saying no.

[Aerows]

8. Yes, the Fountainhead was required reading

But I went to private school. I thought it was a bullshit theory of life then, and I believe it's a bullshit theory of life now. It's like a handbook of everything life shouldn't be about.

[RKP5637]

9. Nope. n/t

[FourScore]

10. It was in GA, in my HS lit class. I did not read it.

I read the cliff notes.

[XanaDUer]

11. No.

nt.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. No (graduated in 1970)

Do you have a link about this?

[Skink]

25. I work at a bookstore and every year it is on reading lists.

[spedtr90]

13. No (MN)

[EFerrari]

14. No. And never in college or grad school in the English program, either. n/t

[highplainsdem]

15. No.

[Scuba]

16. Not in my high school, but my father owned copies of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead...

...true to form I read neither.

[etherealtruth]

So did my dad

He's voted Dem his entire life, but he has also read everything and anything he could get his hands on .... this is how i spend my (very rare) free time.

[haele]

17. The Fountainhead was on a list of "controversial readings" in our sophmore year.

Along with Catcher in the Rye, the Razor's Edge, Black Like Me, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Bell Jar...
Students were allowed to choose the the book they wanted to read and discuss what the social commentary the novel was directed towards.

Haele

[Mz Pip]

18. No

I remember reading some pretty compelling literature in HS. We read To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, and a number of classics from Dickens to Shakespeare. No Ayn Rand.

[etherealtruth]

19. N-O (HS grad 1980)

[ingac70]

20. The Fountainhead

1989. 11th grade English

[Cyrano]

21. No, but neither was "Mein Kumpf."

We were required to read Mark Twain, Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens and a few other of those left-wing, "socialists." We also had to read the Constitution. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in a "commie haven" like NYC where a really good high school teaches you something.

[sea four]

22. Yes.

From Ohio, graduated in 2006. We read a story and book by Ayn Rand in 10th grade english.

[cordelia]

23. No.

[drm604]

24. No.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. No, but I read all of her fictional works by the time I was in 9th grade. She never

"converted" me. This was back in 1965.

[quaker bill]

32. no - amen

[Chan790]

27. Nope. In fact...

I went to a not-to-be-named prestigious Catholic parochial HS and it was banned from the library as having "no redeeming educational value", most likely on account of Rand's militancy in being an atheist and a conscientious blasphemer.

[ZombieHorde]

28. No. I did read about half of Atlas Shrugged* shortly after high school.

I thought it was one of the worst books I ever read, and I wasn't interested in politics at the time.

It just seemed like a manual for uptight unhappiness to me. When she was advocating for sex without passion, I thought it was one of the dumbest thing I've ever read.

edit: * I think it was Atlas Shrugged. It was about a woman who inherited a train company. She would treat her employees really poorly, and then wonder why they did not behave the way she wanted them to behave. It was so dumb.

[Puregonzo1188]

29. Yes, but only Anthem.

For honors English.

[TexasProgresive]

30. Not in mine

But several of us read Rand and discussed her and I believe all of us dismissed her. We were readers who met at club meetings that were sanctioned by the school. I don't remember our official name but we called ourselves "The Society for Creative Pseudo-intellectualism" or something to that effect. Oh yes, the school is in Texas and it is a Catholic H. S. and I don't believe any student was abused sexually by the staff.

[Bluenorthwest]

31. Hell no. In fact, she was the one writer we were taught about

who came with a 'don't bother' note from our teachers. Bad reviews for the works as literature, and an utter disdain for the so called philosophy. Rand was presented as the greedy, untalented, underachieving sociopath she was. Her work was presented as the work of a hack, useful only as an example of bad structure and excess exposition in place of story telling action.

[pnwmom]

33. Not in my Catholic school, no. n/t

[RebelOne]

34. Nope. Because she was not that well known when I went to high school.

And that was a long, long time ago. And I had never heard of her then.

[jwirr]

35. Now for the next question: Is she on your children's must read list?

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

36. No, thankfully.

But I graduated in 1988. And I was stupid enough to read almost all of her books on my own. :crazy: Thankfully I got better. I'd hate to see whole classes of kids forced to go through that. :scared:

[pipi_k]

37. No, but I did read "We The Living" on my own n/t

[Populist_Prole]

38. Not mine

Grew up in the northeast.

[Esurientes]

39. Not at my school or my children's schools.

However, my daughter's high school took advantage of the free Ayn Rand books provided to any U.S. or Canadian high school that will teach them:
http://freebooks.aynrandeducation.com/order/default.aspx

I guess it's past the statute of limitations now for them to get in trouble for ordering the books and never using them. :P

[WorseBeforeBetter]

40. That's a big "no" from P.G. County, Maryland.

[Liberal_in_LA]

41. required reading for a class I took at a Calfornia college

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. I don't think so.

I honestly don't remember reading her but my sister did. Don't know if it was for class or just because she wanted to read Rand.

[Mimosa]

43. NO. And I'd attended 2 different High Schools. n/t

Reading Ayn Rand offers no substantial knowledge in literature or economics.

I read a couple of her books because a girl I admired was a fan.

[Hannah Bell]

44. not required or suggested.

[quiller4]

45. Not in mine. I graduated from a Catholic high school in 1969. n/t

[OHdem10]

46. Since the 80s Young Republicans get book lists which include

Rand. C-Span carries coverage of Young Republicans
and Reading is required there. Visit places where young
hang out and talk one on one encouraging readings.

Hayek is another required reading.

[xmas74]

47. In honor's English classes, yes.

The Fountainhead was required for one course. I hated it and told the teacher I did. She had no problems with someone not liking the book but said that we needed to be exposed to it before college, if only to know what someone was talking about when references were made.


(Just wanted to add: the teacher in question also had us read a number of other books, most of which were controversial in nature. She had no problems with the student telling her they hated a book, as long as they could articulate a decent argument against it. The Fountainhead was the only book I was able to answer "This book is idiotic." and get away with it.)

[tilsammans]

48. A lot of students in my HS were reading it, but . . .

. . . as I recall, it wasn't required reading for any class. (This is back in the late 60s.)

[tammywammy]

49. I graduated in 1999, in Texas, and it wasn't required reading. n/t

[madamesilverspurs]

51. No. '66 grad

We were required to read The Diary of Anne Frank, Black Like Me, at least one biography, Chaucer, Marcus Aurelius and Shakespeare. I can't even imagine not having read any of those.

-

[aikoaiko]

52. Yes, Fountain Head was on the reading list for my high school English class in Northern NJ.

[WinkyDink]

53. Aw, HELL, nah! Not when I attended, and REALLY not when I taught! She isn't exactly in the Canon.

[boppers]

54. Yes, in AP Philosophy, '86. It was an example of failure.

A bunch of minds were exposed to her moronic ideas, and she was mocked soundly. These were students who had already been trained to recognize self-serving, internally inconsistent, bullshit, and as a result, could laugh at the absurdity.

A relevant quote:
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html

[Chisox08]

55. Nope but I read her in college

I found her to be boring and full of shit.

[Raine]

57. Not in my CA high school nt

[xpertanalyst]

58. Not required, but highly recommended

And we all should read it. Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead are great books. With very interesting messages.

You don't have to agree with any of it. But there are some good things in it. That doesn't mean we need a government that emulates it though.

[AsahinaKimi]

60. Never ...

But back then, I was a huge Michael Crichton fan, and read all his books, starting with The Andromeda Strain, which was required.

[csziggy]

61. Not when I was in HS but that was a long time ago.

From ninth grade on, every year we had to read a Shakespearean play, a "great novel" (The Scarlet Letter, Lord of the Flies, etc.), and an ancient epic poem (Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, etc.). It did not matter if the concentration for that year was to be American or English Lit, grammar or whatever. I dimly remember there was another category we also had to include but I can't remember what it might have been - unless it was a new set of mythology (Greek Roman, Egyptian and Norse - though I did read about those on my own and I may be remembering my independent studies).

[sakabatou]

62. Nope. Never read her books.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

64. No, but it was on the list of possible supplementary books in 12th grade

We had the books, plays, and stories required for class, and then we had to read and take a test on three books of our own choosing. If we found a book that qualified as literature but wasn't yet on the list, we could, with the teacher's approval, WRITE a 25-item test on the book instead of taking a test. (I wrote one on Doctor Zhivago, full of trick questions on points where the book differed from the then-recent movie.)