Uncommon Learning: Thoreau on Education
"It is only when we forget our learning that we begin to know", Thoreau wrote. Ideas about education permeate Thoreau's writing. "Uncommon Learning" brings those ideas together in a single volume for the first time. Part of "The Spirit of Thoreau Series". 20-30 drawings by Thoreau.
Sponsored by the Thoreau Society, this trio of conveniently pocket-sized volumes, each with a fresh and authoritative foreword, makes an ideal introduction to the Transcendental naturalist of Concord. The selections in each go beyond predictable snippets from Walden, encompassing nuggets mined from both the familiar and remotest reaches of Thoreau's journalsAall a joy to read and ponder. Among the three topics, readers may be best acquainted with Harvard graduate Thoreau's far-sighted views on real education as an unending, hands-on pursuitAhere illuminated by his views on science and mountains. Long thought, after his death, to be merely a scrupulous collector of facts and measurements, Thoreau was in fact a self-proclaimed mystic who worried that his increasingly frequent brushes with scientific objectivity were threatening his commitment to a life of poetry and principle. These three slim volumes are highly recommended for all nonacademic libraries.ACharles Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO
