Chapter 10: Henry David Thoreau: Spirituality and Experiential Education

Hailed by many as America’s greatest Nature writer (Harding, 1961), and perhaps the most genuine American Transcendentalist (Hochfield, 2004; Koster 1975), Henry David Thoreau is no doubt a literary and spiritual icon. These qualifications warrant little authority in the domain of educational discourse, yet surprisingly applicable insight for educators can be found amidst his romantic literature. Though it was never his intention (Thoreau, 1854/2004), his philosophy of spirituality, experience and education provides a contemporary guide for reexamining the components of human experience and reevaluating the philosophy and methodology of experience-based education.

To use a dead, White man, whose work can be vague, controversial and contradictory (Bickman, 1999) as a point of referral is an imprecise, difficult, and arguably imprudent undertaking (Gruenewald, 2002). Foerster (as cited in Harding, 1961) may have said it best, “Thoreau will remain forever baffling if we insist on resolving into perfect harmony all his ideas and impulses, since there is every reason to believe he did not himself harmonize them” (p. 131). Accordingly, the value of the Thoreauvian philosophy presented does not depend on the extent that it accurately represents Thoreau; the significance lies in the applicability of this philosophy to contemporary experiential education.