Zack Goorno
Fitz 9th English Section 2
Walden Literary Analysis #2
11/3/14
Fitz 9th English Section 2
Walden Literary Analysis #2
11/3/14
I think that it would be better than this, for the students, or those who desire to be benefited by it, even to lay the foundation themselves.
-Quote from Chapter I of Walden
The strongest education is one in which the learner experiences learning hands on. In Economy, Chapter I in Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau talks about the true way in which people learn best, which is by going out and experiencing something, and learning from that experience. Thoreau was certainly one who challenged society a lot, but was able to because he was so disattached from it. He states how many adults are paying loads of money for their children to be sent to school, only to sit in a pedantic classroom full of lectures and lessons taught by unenthusiastic teachers. In turn, what he says they should be doing is allowing their kids the freedom to explore the world at first hand, because that is how they will learn the most effectively and efficiently. After attending Harvard undergrad, and then pursuing a vastly different lifestyle, which was far away from the classroom, Henry David Thoreau contrasts his experiences in school with his experiences living in a log cabin in the woods, facing only the bare essentials of life. Clearly, Thoreau enjoys the second lifestyle more, and is certainly not afraid to voice his opinion on the first part, education:
They should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end. How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? Methinks this would exercise their minds as much as mathematics.
-Quote from Chapter I of Walden
Thoreau declares true education as learning something from experience; he says that school is a waste of time; a waste of money; and that parents are better off letting their kids be free. He believes that people learn best when they face the inevitable, and are forced to learn in order to stay alive and to thrive in their lives. He knows and says that the way he lives is not suited for everyone, but he wants people to attempt to be and do what they love, and learn from their experiences living simply. Thoreau is encouraging more people to leave the classroom, and learn what they need to learn, and more importantly, what they want to learn. After all, the wisest and most educated man in the one who learns from experience.
