Where did the America we know today—so different in its fundamental views about almost every aspect of life as to be unrecognizable to our countrymen of two centuries ago—really come from?

How, for example, did the colonial idea of the classroom as a place devoted to “breaking the will” and “subduing the spirit” of students, change to that of a vibrant, even pleasurable experience—including innovations such as kindergarten and recess—with children encouraged to participate actively in their own education?

By Ashton Nichols, Ph.D, Dickinson College

Dr. Ashton Nichols is Professor of English Language and Literature and Walter E. Beach ’56 Distinguished Chair in Sustainability Studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Here are the titles for the first 6 courses of this series:

• May 14, 2023 – Emerson, Thoreau, and Transcendentalism
• May 21, 2023 – The Roots of American Transcendentalism
• May 28, 2023 – Emerson and the Idea of America
• June 4, 2023 – Emerson and Transcendentalism
• June 11, 2023 – Emerson’s Influence
• June 18, 2023 Thoreau—An American Original