see far below for "Thoreau's Journal Drippings" or email him and ask for it: bill_schechter@lsrhs.net // EXCELLENT and thoughtful resources, study questions, and ideas for intro'ing HS students to Thoreau by a veteran teacher of Thoreau in a nearby hs
1. How can one find truth and, specifically, the meaning of life? Can
you find it by reasoning? How would you define "reason"?
2. What is the relationship between these two words: "religion"
and "spirituality"? Are they the same?
3. If you belive in God, how do you understand the problem of salvation?
How does one find God? How is one to be "saved"? How does one
find a place in Heaven?
4. Have you ever had a "religious experience"? Where and when?
5. How would you describe your own personal relationship to nature?
6. Do you support the current environment movement? If so, why?
A SELECTION OF THOREAU QUOTATIONS
(FOR REFLECTION & THE JOURNAL)
How prompt we are to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our bodies; how
slow to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls.
Any melodious sound apprises me of the infinite wealth of God.
In wildness is the preservation of the world.
When I hear a robin sing at sunset, I cannot help contrast the magnanimity
of nature with the bustle and impatience of man.
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they
shall fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.
The ways by which you get money almost without exception lead downward.To
have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been
truly idle or worse
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because
he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away.
this is the material of Bill Schechter, a teacher (now retired) in the hist dept at Lincoln-Sudbury (MA) High School, located near to Thoreau's Concord. Look elsewhere on the LSRHS site for more excellent material from Mr. Schechter re Thoreau
The overarching theme for all that follows could be summed up thus: go beyond discussion; do what Thoreau did; react and respond in the moment; then compare your responses to his. Through such means, you may start a conversation with Thoreau that crosses centuries.
- Thoreau was an intellectual who could work with his hands.
Emerson's eulogy for Thoreau, published in The Atlantic. Click through to last page for some unpublished quotes and E.'s account of walking in the wilderness with T.
"... in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending
sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most,
cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn,
I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold
and solitude are friends of mine. I suppose that this value, in my case,
is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing and prayer.