About "The Fountainhead" mini Survey

I chatted with a Japanese guy and Vanessa one day. The guy mentioned that he is reading the book "The Fountainhead" recently in his leisure time. He said many of his American co-workers read this book when they were in high school. It is a well known book. At the very beginning, I think it is just an American culture. And Vanessa told us she read this book also when she was studying high school in the Philippines. She and her classmates even based on "The Fountainhead" story to play a drama.

I surfed on the wikipedia for the title of the book. It was written in 1943 by Ayn Rand, a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher. She is best known for creating a philosophy she named "Objectivism". One of the famous statement in the book is "Man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress". It’s a remarkable book of the age. Emmm...what kind of education of the Americans and Filipinos receive in high school? They are encouraged to read such deep meaning book. Because of that, I am curious to know how many people know about this book and start to ask my friends. My Taiwan friend read it when she attended school in America. She thinks local Taiwan students do not know about this book also. Up to now, only one of my Hong Kong friends knows this book. You can read his comment on my previous article. But his case is an exception.

"The Fountainhead" leads me to think about Hong Kong education. Why don't we have chances to touch on some world famous books and different school of thoughts while we were young at school? What’s wrong with our education system? Syllabus is made simple to match our standard? Please don’t under estimate the learning capability of a kid. Here is an interesting example:

記得小時的國文課上，讀過一篇名為＜農家樂＞的文章，大意是描寫農耕生活，分成春夏秋冬四段，關於秋收那一段，印象很深，因為對於小學生來說，有很多艱深的字。我於70-80's讀的時候有一句是這樣寫的「磨去糠粃成白米，炊熟黃樑軟又香」。
當我讀高中替小學生補習時，剛好又見這一課，80-90's的課本把這句改成「磨去穀殼成白米，煮熟白飯軟又香」。簡化內容以遷就學生程度，結果是，那麼有韻味的用字遣詞，便無法介紹給新生代認識。但又不明何以，成年人又反問，為何現今的學生語文水準下降！

我想現在＜農家樂＞已沒有記載於小學課本，將「磨去糠粃成白米，炊熟黃樑軟又香」輸入Google Search， 什麼有關資料也找不到。因為內容不合時宜而受淘汰? 農耕，現時在香港當然難得一見。但眼光別那麼陝隘吧！人類能飽足地生存，都是有賴於農作物。美國到處可見farmer’s market，當我每次逛完後，都有點感恩，多謝大地賜豐盛的產物，多謝農夫的辛勤。只要認識耕作，便明白「粒粒皆辛苦」的道理，引伸是對大地和人的尊重。 學習,是活的,語文科可以引伸到文化科, 自然科學...

我不是個偉大的教育家, 拉雜寫了一大堆，由“The Fountain Head”引起的對話，讓我反思香港教育如何的失敗。人在美國，我發現我的知識和學問，實在貧乏得很。

About “The Fountain Head” Author:

Ayn Rand (1905-1982), was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher; best known for creating a philosophy she named "Objectivism". Her influential and controversial ideas have attracted both enthusiastic admiration and scathing denunciation.