Class # 7By: Dale and Melissa

In Emerson’s work he reflected and encouraged an American ideal of independence and the uniqueness of your inner self.

In Self- Reliance, is Emerson saying “Believe anything you want to believe and do anything you want to do? Or is he really saying nothing outside yourself matters?

Compare Others◦ Plato, Mill, and Jefferson on the thought of

autonomy

YouTube - television is not the truth

Religion◦ Is it what your parents instilled within you or is it

what you have found on your own to believe in? Would Emerson agree that you should simply believe what your parents tell you?

The Poor◦ Is it our duty to help the poor or should we turn

away and not help them?

How do we decide what is good or bad? Is it society as a whole? Parents? Or our own

experiences?

Do you change your attitude when you are with your elders vs. when you are with your friends?

Do you change your view points? Do you feel that as you age, your voice is

heard more or less?

Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion?

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

Are people that do not listen to the “truth” considered hardheaded?

Are we taught not to question by our parents or teachers?

Should high schools do more to encourage independent thought?

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”-Emerson

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” - Emerson

Emerson. “Self-Reliance.” Human Experience: Who Am I?. Ed. Alice Burmeister and Kathy Lyon. 6th ed. Littleton, MA: Tapestry, 2009. 88-93. Print.

Television is Not The Truth. Online Video. YouTube. 2 Feb. 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp5AZ6cgcFU