Transcendental Learning: The Educational Legacy of Alcott, Emerson, Fuller, Peabody, and Thoreau

• In Event: Holistic Education as Practical Transcendentalism

Abstract

Transcendental Learning discusses the work of five figures associated with transcendentalism concerning their views of education. Alcott, Emerson, Fuller, Peabody and Thoreau all taught at one time and held definite views about education. Their collective vision included:
-educating the whole child-body, mind, and soul,
-happiness as a goal of education
-recognizing the inner wisdom of the child as something to be honored and nurtured,
- a blueprint for environmental education through the work of Thoreau,
- an inspiring vision for educating women of all ages through the work of Margaret Fuller,
- an experimental approach to pedagogy that continually seeks for more effective ways of educating children,
-a vision of multicultural and bilingual education through the work of Elizabeth Peabody

Author

• John Miller, University of Toronto