Sharing Knowledge, Imparting Wisdom

By the time he retired in 2015, John had become one of the school’s iconic figures, just as his predecessor had. The knowledge of his subject matter was encyclopedic. His passion for teaching was palpable. He was equal parts demanding and compassionate. He expected excellence from his students. He expected no less of himself.

 

This past week, John returned to share a lesson, and, as always, his presence in the classroom (and the hallways and cafeteria) was a treat.

 

Wendi Moss, his successor, invited him to introduce her students to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, the 19th century New England writers whose connection, among many, was transcendentalism. John’s audience was two groups of 8th Grade guys. The purpose of his presentation was to set the tone for their “outdoor” unit.

 

Turns out that John had never actually taught Emerson or Thoreau during his time at Collegiate or previous stops at St. Catherine’s and Broadwater Academy. Didn’t matter, though. John is immensely well-read, intelligent, earnest, articulate and astute. He has a way of “losing himself” in the material while maintaining a connection with the students (and adults) sitting before him.

 

He spoke without notes. Everyone listened intently and recorded observations. He was in his element.

 

“Emerson was a wunderkind,” he began. “That means he reached intellectual maturity at an early age. He was later the president of Harvard College. He was a prolific writer and a very orderly man. His most famous work was the essay ‘On Nature.’ He was one of the people who helped define what it meant to be an American.”

 

John was getting fired up.

 

“The essence of transcendentalism,” he continued, “is that we need to look outside ourselves to know what truth is. We need to go beyond the conventional boundaries of thought. You see from nature what truth is. Our inner life guides us. For example, if you’re a wolf, you don’t have to read a book to know how to be a wolf. It comes naturally.”

 

He chuckled as the guys scribbled.

 

“Thoreau,” he explained, “had his own way of doing things. He had a different approach to life than Emerson did. He was very inconsistent. Emerson was disturbed by Thoreau’s messiness. But great ideas sometimes come from messy people.”

 

John noted that when the United States went to war with Mexico in 1846, Thoreau became a dissenter.

 

“He wrote one of his greatest essays on American political thought: ‘On Civil Disobedience,’” John said. “He preferred to go to jail rather than pay taxes to support the war. He was also an abolitionist. Martin Luther King was inspired by ‘On Civil Disobedience.’”

 

Thoreau, John told the classes, was well known for Walden, a classic which included reflections about the two years, two months and two days he spent in seclusion at Walden Pond, which Emerson actually owned.

 

“Thoreau was quite unconventional,” John said. “In Walden, he talks about strange things, unexpected things, like the idea that people demand too much space and that it’s worrisome if they don’t have enough space to control. His thought was that you need only enough space to cover your body. Why commit all your resources to things? Why do you need all that money anyway? You should be free to think and feel.”

 

Together, John added, Emerson and Thoreau began to formulate what he called an “American outlook” unfettered by convention or long-standing rules and regulations.

 

“The American Dream,” he said. “We can do what we want, what you dream. We don’t have a bunch of traditions that bind us to live as (our European forefathers) had. The only responsibility is that we don’t sully the dreams of our neighbors. It was a huge change, so spectacularly different that it wasn’t widely understood outside this country. Americans (at that time) weren’t known as profound speakers. They were known as profound doers.”

 

Along the way, John threw out a few “thought” questions and received perceptive responses. Over the next few weeks, Wendi’s crew will move about campus, visit selected venues and write their own reflections. Chances are good that John will return to share in the debriefing process.

 

For John, the return to the classroom, albeit brief, was exhilarating.

 

“The best thing for me was teaching the material,” he said. “To feel as if I was opening something up to the kids that wouldn’t just be limited to Thoreau and Emerson but a wide range of issues was wonderful. That’s what I love to do.”

    -- Weldon Bradshaw