Atlas Shrugged

I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I had read The Fountainhead in high school but never got to Atlas Shrugged until now. Definitely an interesting read. The most amazing thing to me was that this was written in 1957 and Ayn Rand saw where the moral choices our world was making would take us so clearly. If you read this book you will recognize so many aspects of our society clearly depicted.


Before I return this book I wanted to share a quote that jumped out to me. In this part of the book someone had just decided to take a stand for what was right rather than just blindly following what the leaders were telling him was right and what he should do. He was then shot in a riot and Hank Rearden who was carrying him to safety when he died is thinking,
"Somewhere, he thought, there was this boy's mother, who had trembled with protective concern over his groping steps, while teaching him to walk, who had measured his baby formulas with a jeweler's caution, who had obeyed with a zealot's fervor the latest words of science on his diet and hygiene, protecting his unhardened body from germs-then had sent him to be turned into a tortured neurotic by the men who taught him that he had no mind and must never attempt to think...
"He thought of all the living species that train their young in the art of survival, the cats who teach their kittens to hunt, the birds who spend such effort on teaching their fledglings to fly - yet man, whose tool of survival is the mind, does not merely fail to teach a child to think, but devotes the child's education to the purpose of destroying his brain, of convincing him that thought is futile and evil, before he has started to think.
"From the first catch-phrases flung at a child to the last, it is like a series of shocks to freeze his motor, to undercut the power of his consciousness. 'Don't ask so many questions, children should be seen and not heard!' - 'Who are you to think? It's so because I say so!' - 'Don't argue, obey!' - 'Don't try to understand, believe!' - 'Don't rebel, adjust!' - 'Don't stand out, belong!' - 'Don't struggle, compromise!'- 'Your heart is more important than your mind!' - 'Who are you to know? Your parents know best!' - 'Who are you to know? Society knows best!' - Who are you to know? The bureaucrats know best!' - 'Who are you to object? All values are relative!' - 'Who are you to want to escape a thug's bullet? That's only a personal prejudice!
"Men would shudder, he thought, if they saw a mother bird plucking the feathers from the wings of her young, then pushing him out of the nest to struggle for survival - yet that was what they did to their children.
"Armed with nothing but meaningless phrases, this boy had been thrown to fight for existence, he had hobbled and groped through a brief, doomed effort, he had screamed his indignant, bewildered protest - and had perished in his first attempt to soar on his mangled wings.
"But a different breed of teachers had once existed, he thought, and had reared the men who created this country..."

I know there are great teachers out there and I share this not to be negative but to illuminate areas we can improve in. As I read this it brought to mind two situations I found myself in, one when we first moved here and Brandon had been attending a school that taught math one grade ahead (they started first grade math in kindergarten). After being tested and finding that he was indeed a grade ahead I met with the teacher who told me that it would be best for him to spend the year helping the other kids learn because if they let him do math at his level then what would happen next year or the year after that? For no child to be left behind, none can move ahead.

The second situation was with Travis in First grade. I went to a parent teacher conference and his teacher (who I really liked) commented that we needed to work on his writing. She said that she kept reminding him that he had to write the letter a certain way and yet he didn't write them like that. I looked over at Travis whose face clearly said "why does it matter that my 'a' has a tail on it."

I asked Travis if he knew why he was being asked to write the letter that way. He replied he didn't so I asked for a piece of paper and wrote a word in cursive that contained an "a."
"When you start writing cursive this tail will be what links the letter to the one next to it. If you are already used to writing it this way it will be easier to learn cursive."

Simple right? The amazing thing was that when I looked up the teacher had a look of wonder on her face and said,"It never occurred to me to tell them why they had to do it this way." What??
She actually commented on that at least two more times before our conference was over. What is the use of "education" if the results are people who simply follow directions well and are happy to be "good enough"?