I am finally getting to start a project that I have had in mind since I started my first book, A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England.  As I wrote this book, I envisioned a set of lesson plans designed to help teachers introduce students to transcendentalism using the book. Certainly, this book is no substitute for a trip to Concord, but most teachers cannot bring their classes down the Lexington Road into Concord, so this book and set of lesson plans might help students make that trip in their imaginations.

So, the question remains.  What would you include in a lesson plan?  What do you think students should know about transcendentalism?  Or Concord? Or the American Revolution? Literature?  I'm asking not just the teachers out there, but everyone who might be reading.  It is an interesting question for me.  Given the importance of the literary movement and its associated historical context, what is important to pass on?  Or, as Emerson challenges, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past?  These questions are important to me not just as I create the lesson plans for the Concord chapter of A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England but also as I contemplate them for A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival and A Journey into William Wordsworth's Lake District.

Post your ideas here in the comments section or email me at rtfelton at earthlink.net.  I'm really looking forward to hearing your ideas.