I Adapted Emerson for My Kids
In the era of global pandemic, his words are truer now than ever.
One of my ten year old’s school-from-home assignments during the coronavirus pandemic was a reading-for-comprehension exercise on Louisa May Alcott.
The short, dry text was accompanied by a black-and-white photo of Alcott looking dour, her dark hair pulled back into a schoolmarmish bun. Oh man, I thought. How do I make this interesting to a little boy who loves lacrosse, mountain biking, and Formula 1 racing?
The text mentioned Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, both of whom were referred to as Alcott’s “teachers.”
Aha! I thought. He’ll love learning about these men, who share his childlike reverence and love for the woods.
A quick Internet search revealed that when Alcott was about seven, her father enrolled her in a sort of wildlife school taught by Thoreau, who was then 23. As a teenager, Louisa borrowed books from her next-door neighbor, Emerson. As a thank-you, she left wildflowers on his front step. It’s said that Louisa May Alcott had an unrequited love for her schoolteacher, and for her generous neighbor.
That’s when an idea took hold. I wanted to give my son an appreciation for the words Alcott was reading from Emerson’s library, or the…
