School Named for Thoreau

Our school is named after Henry David Thoreau.

The property on which the school is located is Camp Thoreau, a children's summer camp. It is also our year-round home. What is more, the property is an old family farm which we try to keep in production.

Henry David Thoreau taught school himself for a few years. I would like to think that he might have approved of some of the things that we have done here, although I know he would disapprove of the folly of owning a property of this size. Thoreau believed that owning a farm is a type of slavery.

Thoreau left behind some good advice for writers of books: The writer, he said, does not make books out of books, but he has been there in person. Hence this record of the four years in which I directed the Thoreau School.