"To some extent and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi" -- H.D. Thoreau 1849

Resources for teaching Thoreau's Essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"

Pre-Reading

Text

Activities

Intro to Civil Disobedience

PowerPoint Presentation

Link to full text of "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" courtesy of the Walden Woods Project

Abridged text of Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" from A Patriot's Handbook edited by Caroline Kennedy

Lesson from the Asia Society on the links between Thoreau, Ganhi, and MLK Jr. and their commitments to civil disobedience

 

Resources for teaching Thoreau's Walden

Pre-Reading

Text

"Looking East" presentation on the influcences of Hindu and Buddhist thought in Walden

Link to full text of Walden courtesy of the Walden Woods Project

Abridged text of Walden from A Patriot's Handbook edited by Caroline Kennedy

Lessons and Activities

Additional Resources

  • Ask students to use Glogster.com to create a poster reflecting their vision of Thoreau's message in Walden

  • Read the Billy Collins poem "Dharma" and ask students to analyze the poem's connections to Walden, Hinduism, and Buddhism

  • Read the Jataka tales of "The Golden Deer" and "The Tree Spirit" and ask students to connect these texts to the messages in Walden and "Civil Disobedience"

 

 

This site was created by Elizabeth Thompson at the NEH Summer Institute "Literatures, Religions, and Arts of the Himalayan Region," held at the College of the Holy Cross, Summer 2011.