Who is Thoreau College called to serve?

The ideal Thoreau College student is a young person who, when presented with a new experience, context, or perspective, instinctively says ‘YES!’ Across the Five Pillars of the Thoreau College curriculum (Academics, Labor, Community, Art, and Nature), we hope and expect that every student will encounter one or many experiences that are new, uncomfortable, or challenging for them.  Some examples might be a difficult book or idea, a hard physical challenge of strength, endurance, or dexterity, an opportunity for personal vulnerability in publicly sharing a perspective or a work of creative art, a challenging social relationship or interpersonal conflict to be worked through, or demanding and honest feedback from an elder, teacher, mentor, or peer.  Thoreau College strives to serve and support students who understand that such moments of crisis can be the crucible in which real personal growth and inner development can be forged and who are eager to dive in with trust in the support of the community.

Thoreau College perceives that the most acute crises of our time are manifestations of disconnection and lack of relationship.  These include breakdowns in relationships between humans and nature, between people and place, between citizens and institutions, between individuals and community, and within each person, between the masks of everyday self-consciousness and higher Self and deeper purpose.  At Thoreau College, we strive to cultivate an island of coherence in which all of these relationships are actively and lovingly tended to and where students can have a rich experience of vibrant and multidimensional connection to carry with them as an archetype and guiding star as they embark on their life journeys and begin to form their own communities as new islands of coherence wherever they land.

Thoreau College especially seeks to serve young people who have come to question the established forms of education and conventional pathways to adulthood that have become the norm in our culture. It is self-evident that the crises of relationship in our world and the resulting manifold harms are a direct result of our institutions and forms of education and of the picture of successful adulthood that they are designed to support.  In a time of disruption and rapid transition in education, Thoreau College seeks to be a haven for people who are awake to these dilemmas and dissatisfied with the educational forms available to them. We are excited to welcome such young people to the table as collaborators and co-creators in developing new models better suited to the emerging future.

In our time, the temptation to fall into despair is ever present. Confronted with ecological breakdown, rapid technological disruption, institutional decay, political and cultural fragmentation, and international conflict, the scale of the challenges we face can feel entirely out of proportion to what any individual or small community can address. We don’t have the answers to all of these questions, but at Thoreau College we embrace the understanding that this is the unique historical moment we have been given in which to live and work with purpose and integrity. We are excited to welcome students and co-workers who are ready to set aside passivity and resignation in their lives and instead embark on this journey together, discovering what can be built with courage, perseverance, and joy.

Thoreau College welcomes students who are anxious about themselves, who have habits they would like to change, who are disappointed with their progress towards life goals, who are confused about what to believe and whom to trust, or who feel uncertain about the next steps in their personal path.  Our goal is to craft a sturdy and supportive vessel in which students can incubate and launch the next phase of their development, from wherever they begin when they arrive.  

When Henry David Thoreau went to live in the woods at Walden Pond in 1845 on the cusp of his 28th birthday, his life had largely been characterized by failure and disappointment.  He had failed in his chosen profession, failed in finding a life partner, lost people close to him to untimely death, and even made himself unpopular in his community by causing a significant forest fire.  When he writes of the mass of people leading “lives of quiet desperation,” he is speaking first and foremost about himself.  But in taking a step back with his two year retreat at Walden Pond, Thoreau was able to reforge his relationships with Nature, with himself, with people in his life, and with the wellsprings of the Spirit.  This allowed him to compose two critically important works of literature and thought – Walden and “Civil Disobedience” – whose impacts on culture and history reverberate down to the present day.  Wherever you are in life, it is not too late to begin again.  As Thoreau writes at the very end of Walden – “There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.”