A School Named for Thoreau

About the Book

Our school is named after Henry David Thoreau. The property on which the school is located is Camp Thoreau, a children’s summer camp. It is also our year round home. What is more, the property is an old family farm which we try to keep in production.

Henry David Thoreau taught school himself for a few years. I would like to think that he might have approved of some of the things that we have done here, although I know he would disapprove of the folly of owning a property of this size. Thoreau believed that owning a farm is a type of slavery.

Thoreau left behind some good advice for writers of books: “The writer,” he said “does not make books out of books, but he has been there in person.” Hence this record of the four years in which I directed the Thoreau School.

About the Author

Since operating the school, Karl Rodman has gone on to receive a Doctorate degree in Comparative Education from Columbia University. He has taught at all levels, including New York State University at New Paltz, where he and his wife still live. Karl Rodman now operates an educational tour business and can be found at . The ideas which Karl Rodman examined almost thirty years ago remain fresh and challenging today.