Posted on 02/07/2013 6:13:54 AM PST by JoeProBono
BOISE, Idaho, - An Idaho Republican state senator who introduced a bill requiring high school students to read "Atlas Shrugged" said he doesn't plan to push for passage.
Sen. John Goedde, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, introduced the bill Tuesday that would mandate students pass a test on Ayn Rand's 1957 best-seller, frequently cited by conservative politicians such as U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as inspiration for their politics.
When Republican Sen. Bob Nonini asked Goedde why he proposed making "Atlas Shrugged" required reading, Goedde got a laugh when he said, "That book made my son a Republican."
Goedde, however, said he doesn't plan to move the bill forward -- he just wanted to express his unhappiness with the State Board of Education for recent changes in graduation requirements, and a change in the way school principals are evaluated," The (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review reported.
"It was a shot over their bow just to let them know that there's another way to adopt high school graduation requirements," Goedde said.
Rand's book describes an America in which business leaders decide to stop working to protest higher taxes and government regulation.
"When I read 'Atlas Shrugged,' and it's been probably 30 years since I read it, but it certainly gives one a sense of personal responsibility," Goedde said.
For the record, Goedde said his son is not actually "a practicing Republican. But it certainly made him a conservative."
Smaller Government???? I do not like mandatory laws no matter who they come from. I think that if a kid wants to read that book then ensure it is on the Summer list or reading list and let them choose.
Wouldn't that be neat ?
I think the book is dumb and can’t stand that garbage.
More worthwhile is Witness by Whittaker Chambers
Did you read the book about when all the Bluegrass musicians went out on strike? It’s called “Atlas Scrugged”.
It is a good read (have read the book twice) but anymore there is a huge flaw in that Communist China is taking over from us.
Communist China.
Think about that. We are buying everything from Communists.
Wake up people.
You think the book is "dumb?" You "can't stand that garbage?"
What are you, five years old?
Both books have value but AS makes the original American way more entertaining.
This is not an issue of smaller government versus bigger government...and for the record, we already have mandatory reading lists...its called SCHOOL CURRICULUM - this is just a suggestion to add Atlas Shrugged to that list. No expansion of anything.
I have reservations about anyone who would call AS “garbage” - putting them in agreement on this issue with Obama. But moreover, why would it be mutually exclusive concepts to read both Rand and Chambers? I don’t think there’s a law we can only read one or the other? And they’re different books.
In today’s education monopoly, the good intention will just get twisted by teachers’ union.
Their minds had been poisoned, they don’t see any other way.
Ann Rand was not writing arguments based on facts but social science kind of garbage that I despise.
And while they are at it, have them read and study “The 5000 Year Leap.”
I’d settle for “A History of the American People” by Paul Johnson, instead the Howoard Zinn crap.
Let me help you out here with a concept: Rand was a fiction writer, and yet her stories are remarkably prescient. In other words, her "facts" didn't happen until decades later, which we call prophetic or prescient. She drew on her life under communism as an inspiration. Frankly, I don't think you've read her work, I am calling you out here for reading something "about" her work and using that as an excuse not to read it. Your "social science" garbage statement makse zero sense at all. And by the way, it's Ayn, not Ann.
The Chinese are “Communist in name only.”
“I think the book is dumb and can’t stand that garbage.
More worthwhile is Witness by Whittaker Chambers”
I read both books, don’t remember too much of “Witness” however, “Atlas Shrugged” sticks to my brain like no other book.
I disagree then.
The Chinese are very much Communist.
You never read Atlas Shrugged.
well it’s the reverse for me. Some philosophy major in college waxed on about the fabulousness of Ann Rand, but when I read it, I thought it was weird and unfathomable.
i’m five and you are two.
We The Living is much much better book.
LOL
yeah, I know she was a fiction writer, yeah I haven’t read the book in the last 30 years. When I did read it I was about maybe 22 and I thought it was awful. Don’t get people panting over how fab it is, but that’s what makes horse races.
There is a measure of economic freedom in China. Communist countries have zero economic freedom.
If it's been 30 years since you read the book, perhaps you weren't old enough at the time to appreciate it. As others have pointed out, Rand was a fictional writer--but she espoused her objectivist' philosophy within her stories.
While I wouldn't use "fab" to describe her or her works, many still appreciate that her books--particularly "Atlas Shrugged," was almost prophetic in its accuracy. The current events we see happening today, with respect to politic-economics, were portrayed in her books. She learned from her Russian upbringing, and saw the collectivist mindset taking root here in the United States. AS was a warning to us, for those who chose to read it and understand.
By the way, were there any characters in the book you found at least a little interesting?
Because 57 years ago she CORRECTLY PREDICTED TODAYS UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT!! You ain't 22 and this ain't the early 80s. I submit you should at least check out the film version, and you'll "get people panting" over it.
Look troll, I really don't need your blessings. Go back and look at the context of my question. The original poster claimed AS was "dumb." You don't have to to be an Ayn Rand fan, and you don't have to like her books, her philosophy, her heritage, whatever. But in the nearly 15 years I've been on FreeRepublic, I've come to expect that fellow posters will at least put forth some rational argument for their position. If you're unwilling to engage in polite discourse as an adult, you're no better than the crowd at DU. In other words, you behave like a 5 year-old child.
Ping.
Ping.
I’d rather make “The Road To Serfdom” mandatory. Atlas Shrugged is one huge, long novel. Most people can’t wade through it.
I've heard Ayn Rand and AS called a lot of things. "Dumb" is not one of them.
Thanks, Nelson. I’ve often wished for such a button too.
Yes! A thousand times yes!
Atlas Shrugged is one of the most intelligently written novels of the 20th century. Some people just lack the intelligence and maturity to appreciate it. Chances are they couldn’t get past the first few pages because it was simply beyond their capacity to understand it.
AuH2O converted me into a conservative (in my heart I knew he was right). Ayn Rand sealed the deal (she scared the $hit out of me). See my tag.
Read it twice already. Great writer.
“Ann Rand was not writing arguments based on facts but social science kind of garbage that I despise.”
Since you don’t even know it is not “Ann” and your entire intellectual comment was simply, “dumb”, I HIGHLY doubt you ever read it nor understand it. Her writings were based in fact since she grew up in the Communist Russia during the days of the revolutions and as an adult knew the Socialists of the day and what they were saying. Her writings were warnings of the ideas of the Marxists and what they desired for govenment.
ok you are not the first to point out that she grew up under Commidom and her name is spelled “Ayn”. If you had bothered to read the thread you would
a. Know I am not a liar and
b. Know that yes, you are right, I HAVEN’T READ IT (SINCE I WAS 22 that is) AND IT BORED ME STIFF THEN
So, now I am led to believe that just like Nicodemus, Ayn was “prescient” and “predicted” what would happen. Well, so was George Orwell and at least his books were readable. So I guess she was a prophet and good for her.
Anyone who has achieved any position of of power in any social hierarchy through any means other than merit inevitably hates Rand's works. America's government-media complex is chock full of Catherine Halseys and Ellsworth Tooheys and they don't like seeing themselves so fully exposed. Rand captured the ethos of the Obama Administration very nicely in this quote:
"We are all equal under the skin. And I, for one, am willing to skin humanity to prove it." -- Ellsworth Toohey, The Fountainhead
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