Group Work on Anthem
Note: If you were not in class for this group exercise, please complete it as a written exercise and turn it in as soon as you can.
Break up into small groups.
Discuss your answers to the reading questions.
Then discuss the following. Delegate one or more members of your group to prepare an oral and written summary of your group's discussion.
1. Think about authorities in your own school and family experience and the ways they have advised others to make career and other life choice decisions (consider, for example, how Chris was "tracked" in school). What do you think of this?
2. Have any members of your group (or good friends of members of your group) been tracked our directed for reasons having to do with race, appearance, gender, your last name, etc.? If they successfully resisted this tracking, how did they do it? If they didn't successfully resist, what happened? [Remember: Whether you or a friend, I recommend (in the interests of your privacy and the duties of friendship) you change names to protect confidentiality. (Feel free to use 'Ralph' and 'Alethea.')]
3. Who do you think should be consulted about important life decisions? Why?
4. Who ultimately ought to have the right to decide what you do with your life? Why?
5. What do you think Rand would have thought about your answers to #3 and #4. If any members of your group have studied Rand in other classes or read any of her other works, determine if they have different perspectives concerning what Rand would have thought about your answers.
(Last edited September, 2013.)