From last week’s reading and class discussion, I was very curious to explore and dig deeper into Thoreau’s ideas about education and community in Walden. It seems that he is condemning classroom/lecture type learning and pushing for more experimental and hands on learning. He seems to value working with your own hands and going outside. I enjoyed his example comparing the boy learning about making jack knives. He asked his readers which boy would be well off with a jack knife, the one who went out, collected ore and made it himself, or the one that read or learned about it in the class room. It seems that he is bashing on the educational system when he says “to my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation.” However Thoreau did attend Harvard University, so this quote has caused me to wonder about his experiences at Harvard. He must have disliked it greatly. I do agree with Thoreau about hands on learning and being outside the classroom, I think I would most greatly enjoy being in a “Thoreauvian” type school, however I do feel at the same time that sometimes attending a lecture is beneficial for many people. Thoreau is concerned with the youth not living life, he says “I mean that they should not play life, or study it merely- but earnestly live it from the beginning to end.”
Another point I was puzzled about was the idea of community in Walden. I am trying to figure out what Thoreau means by community, and how he defines it. On page thirteen of our text in the first paragraph, Thoreau discusses how it is a shame that he does not see men building their own homes with their own hands and don’t provide food for themselves and their own family (I assume by farming and harvesting themselves). He says “Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter?” I agree with him here in that, yes, it is probably brings a great sense of accomplishment and feeling to build something with your own hands; I am a follower of the DIY (Do It Yourself) ideology. But doing everything on your own may separate you from the community in a way. He then sates “We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer.” In the society and community we live in today, each one of us relies on the carpenter for building and we rely on the farmer for food. If we each built and farmed for ourselves, the carpenter and the farmer would not have a place in our current society. I am not sure if being completely independent and self sufficient displaces one from the community or not. Maybe Thoreau cuts away from society to actually see what it means and whether or not it is important for not. However, he does seem dislike people at time. Who can blame him?
