Tenets Of Transcendentalism In Emerson's Unplugged Home

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“Live in the sunshine, swim in the Sea, drink the wild air”. This quote by Emerson embodied many traits of transcendentalism that emerged in New England around 1836. Focusing greatly on the individual to escape society, both Thoreau and Emerson embodied these principles. Through transcendentalism, it helped many people around the world remember what it's like to feel alive. In today’s world, transcendentalists would be dispirited about many aspects of society, particularly the school system. In a transcendentalist school molded by the tenets of transcendentalism, many fruitful changes would take place. The education system would not be colorless but bursting full of animation. Schools would be a place where individuality is more important than …show more content…

As demonstrated in Unplugged Home, it offers great insights on how to live a happy life with no technology. Corliss and Wegman are both unpluggers, seeing how tangled lives “often distracts us from more meaningful interactions. At the heart of the unplugging movement is a desire… to get back to a purer way of living”(Brown 1). This insightful movement, advocates people to reduce the amount of technology that makes life more convoluted. By reducing distractions such as technology one is able to live a more meaningful life and focus on critical elements of life. This would be depicted in the education philosophy stressing that a happy life is accomplished by having a simple life. This would allow one to narrow down life to its raw form, focusing on what really matters. Students would be reminded to make life less complicated by decreasing material wealth to focus on growth as a person. This would allow students to become shining individuals who are content with life. Also seen in Thoreau’s essay Walden, he believes wholeheartedly that less has more intrinsic value. After living in Walden pond in search of enlightenment, he realizes, “I went to the woods because I… wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life”(237). Thoreau talks about living a life that has purpose. Not to just live on Earth, but to live intentionally and fully. This expounds the educational philosophy of the school to help students find a place in the world and promote true colors. Instead of focusing on academics, schools would concentrate on creating students who are happy and a positive force that people gravitate towards. Overall, this major tenet of transcendentalism of making all students have a life of true meaning would be reflected in the educational philosophy, encouraging students to not focus on material living but

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