Thoreau College is a microcollege in Viroqua, Wisconsin where artists and activists from ages 18 to 46 live and learn together in an intentional community. Thoreau College is working to create immersive, impactful, personalized higher education that is also financially accessible. The college currently has academic courses in regenerative agriculture, writing composition, political philosophy, and visual arts. In addition to internships and classes, each student and faculty participates in self-governance of all college programs including admissions, outreach, curriculum design, and operating the business aspect of a greenhouse called Thoreau’s Garden.

Thoreau College is currently hosting a range of programs including the Metamorphosis Year, a full-time program for young adults seeking to challenge and develop themselves through engagement with academics, labor, community, art, and nature. The college is also organizing a three-week summer program for fifteen people that will include a week-long farm stay and an intensive workshop as an introduction to permaculture.

Reported and produced by Chloe Peterson-Nafziger (Stanford Environmental Communication M.A. ’22, Current Fellow at Thoreau College) Learn more at thoreaucollege.org

I’d loved his work since I was a teenager in Worcester. I developed a fresh appreciation for him during the pandemic. (David Gessner, Globe Magazine)

Thoreau was a surprising fellow—he is not easily grasped—is elusive: yet he is one of the native forces—stands for a fact, a movement, an upheaval: Thoreau belongs to America, to the transcendental, to the protesters: then he is an outdoor man: all outdoor men everything else being equal appeal to me. — Walt Whitman as told to Horace Traubel

The wonder is, that Emerson—so delicate—so simple—so fine—should have been heard at all. The significant things are quickly told—that he lived at all—that he worked, wrote—and the world listened. And I always feel of Emerson as I do of Christianity: the acceptance of Christianity was not a credit to Jesus, but to the human race, that it could see, and seeing, welcome; as now with Emerson, the tribute, testimony, not to him but to the modern man, that he can compass so much.

             Walt Whitman as recorded by Horace Traubel

Now, methinks, the autumnal tints are brightest in our streets and in the woods generally.… Stand where half a dozen large elms droop over a house. It is as if you stood within a ripe pumpkin rind, and you feel as mellow as if you were the pulp. Thoreau – October 6 1858

There is no plateau on which Nature rests at midsummer, but she instantly commences the descent to winter. Thoureau – August 23, 1858

“Live in each season as it passes—breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, & resign yourself to the influences of each. Thoreau– August 23, 1853

Cool reading.

This put a smile on my face ; ) Some good first lessons drawn from Walden with a contemporary focus.