ralph waldo emerson education essay

ralph waldo emerson education essay

The Importance of Education: Insights from Ralph Waldo Emerson

1. Introduction to Ralph Waldo Emerson and his Philosophy on Education

Deeply influenced by the poetry of William Wordsworth and by the writings of Samuel Taylor and Coleridge, Emerson introduced these main themes to American audiences, themes which would define his career—self-reliance, self-culture, the nature of vocation, the ways in which the human soul reaches outward into the sensible world. Emerson’s thought proved that he was no retreatist American Transcendentalist, but one deeply concerned with the more quotidian problems of life. And education loomed large over many of his works. Central to Emerson’s writing on education is the impact Christian ideals play in ensuring a responsive community of teachers; the real value of the university is in extraverted action that centers attention on the community and hence ensures these ideas maintain resonance with the public interest.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s influence is most directly seen in the upsurge of American higher education that occurred during the 19th century, particularly in the proliferation of curriculum in the “literae humaniores,” philosophy, ethics, and literature. In the one hundred years between the publication of “Nature” in 1836 and the beginning of World War II in Europe, his public readings and lectures drew thousands of spectators, and his writings were widely cited both in journals and in the popular press. Emerson is often held up in histories of American philosophy as a pioneering anti-intellectual writer. His work is frequently cited to paint an environmental portrait that sets the stage for American philosophy broadly. Emerson came to academic philosophy by way of theology, undergirded by German idealism and the cloaked presence of Spinoza.

2. Key Concepts in Emerson’s Educational Philosophy

An individual must be self-sufficient in order to accomplish anything. A self-reliant individual does not require much to benefit. Emerson developed the notion of nonconformity to encourage individuals to shun any influence that may hinder their liberty. According to Emerson, it is important to be an individual and not to allow oneself to be subjugated by society. Furthermore, he proposed that the “living confidence in us” is the need for intellectual independence. As he attempted to create an impression of the first man, “man does not stand free until he stretches the boughs of an olive tree,” to describe the quality of innocence in the path of the past. Man has the right to obtain nature’s gestures or messages.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a proponent of the Transcendentalist movement of the 19th century, was a frequent contributor to The Atlantic Monthly. In his essay “The American Scholar,” he delved into the necessity of education with an uncommon understanding. He emphasized the concept of a human being as an individual with private thoughts, a nonconformist who disavows intellectual dependence. “We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe,” he writes. “The seven stars [no longer sought], the sun is gone.” In our nation, according to Emerson, “the ancient forms become more interesting than that of Helo. For the advantage of this statement to us, the idea is the fact of our being a living nation, which he pursued and uttered.” Emerson integrated various facets of human ideology into educational processes, including self-reliance, anti-conformity, intellectual independence, and an emphasis on nature’s beauty and truth.

3. The Role of Self-Reliance in Education according to Emerson

Emerson’s main compelling argument in favor of autodidacticism was that people remember and more thoroughly understand anything they learn when they discover it for themselves. Emerson praised self-reliant individuals who remained independent of any single authority. These qualities of self-reliance, independence, and discovery, however, reflect self-education as it reveals an intrinsic connection between method and direction. The self-reliant individual guided education to the direction of selfhood. Today, “education has become a universal pursuit,” but for Emerson, “perhaps most adult Americans educated themselves outside of an institution.” With self-reliance, individuals had and could further develop the motivation to set a plan of study; they could remain fiercely independent of curricula controlled by central authorities, and their learning was driven by their interests and propensities.

Ralph Waldo Emerson had a long-standing and ardently-held belief that Americans should be self-reliant and able to live successfully according to their own personal code. These beliefs, detailed in his essay “Self-Reliance,” would also inform his ideas on the purpose of and method for education. Self-reliance has the latent power to be “transformative for the individual” as it “forces the individual to take an axe to empirical things” and reconstruct meaning based on rational thought and understanding. Emerson’s educational philosophy reflects this same ideal: that educational experiences shaped by the development of self-reliance in the individual would have a positive effect on civic life. Emerson firmly believed in the worth of the complete and independent individual stemming from collaborative, independent learning. He claimed, “I do not think the summit of philosophy in the present building, and cannot therefore accept the world of the learned in this age.”

4. Implications of Emerson’s Educational Ideas in Contemporary Society

Efforts have been taken by some of the more esoteric institutions to reflect on and draw from Cartesian philosophy and supplement it into already-existing educational institutions; however, many new locations, such as newer private colleges and universities, have sought a more progress-oriented education. Most formal institutions have not embraced the educational ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson. If they had, it becomes immediately clear that the United States would be much closer to the ideal society he aspires to create. However, it cannot simply be adaptation that we must undertake in reforming our institutions and minds, for adaptations can be both mooted in their attempts to understand contemporary culture just as they can be greater failures in timing.

Emerson’s philosophy of education is as relevant today as the day it was published. His proposed ideals are powerful enough to inform us at best and inspire us at least toward the improvement of our modern school systems. Many teachers are heavily invested in the success of their students, so it should also be of great interest to the guardians of such educational institutions if someone of such high caliber were to offer advice concerning the workings of both them and their students. The principles guiding them should be critically examined and brought in line with the rapidly changing modern society. Emerson’s ideas are, in these and many other ways, as useful today as when they were written.

5. Conclusion: Relevance and Legacy of Emerson’s Thoughts on Education

During his lifetime, Emerson was almost as famous for his speaking as for his essays, poems, and books. Because his educational addresses in particular were so inspiring and thought-provoking, many schools and universities honored him with one or more honorary degrees. And his thoughts on and values about the transcendental and the beautiful, and on the powers of the soul, provide future generations of scholars—who still boom audio-recorded the Boylston Hall addresses—with a better understanding of what learners may get out of formal education given the parts of speakers, tutors, and students that Emerson modeled. But won’t a focus on Emerson’s pedagogy encourage children to aspire to be as self-reliant, yet as dependent upon society’s resources, as Emerson was? Isn’t Emerson’s educational philosophy at odds with, if not entirely irrelevant to, the concerns about elitism and the perennial search for curriculum and pedagogical tools?

“Divinity School Address,” from the late 1830s, and “The Transcendentalist,” published two years later, include many insights that are applicable to education, America’s continuous resuscitation of its citizens. The scholars that continue extending and complicating the questions that Emerson raised hundreds of years ago produce ideas that are relevant to all educators, regardless of their nor of their students’ ages.