Four Kindness Activities for Valentines Day

Four Kindness Activities for Valentines Day Kelly shares four of her favorite activities for celebrating Valentine’s Day with her elementary students. Each activity is centered around the theme of kindness. Consider trying these activities with your students so that February 14th is more about showing appreciation than candy and cards. Valentine’s Day is all about love, and what shows love in the elementary classroom more than simple acts of kindness? This Valentine’s Day incorporate teaching about kindness into your classroom with these simple ideas. Persuasive Writing Help your kids practice Persuasive Writing with a fun version of “love letters.” In these letters, students make a claim like “my mom and dad are the best” and then list three reasons to support their opinion. I differentiate this lesson by giving students a claim or allowing students to write their own. As a bonus, this is a great valentine gift idea students can share with their parents. Make a Kindness Quilt Read the book The Kindness Quilt by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. Ask students to brainstorm ways they are kind and document their responses on a quilt square. Students may enjoy partnering with another class to make their quilt larger and build community within your school as well. Use the sentence starter: I am kind when to help students get started and provide additional support. Record 100 Acts of Kindness Valentine’s Day often falls around the 100th day of school. You can celebrate both at the same time with a hundreds chart record of classroom acts of kindness. Have students use a bingo dot marker or stickers to record when they see another classmate do something kind. To extend the kindness to the whole community, try to collect 100 cans for a local food pantry. Read All About Kindness There are so many great picture books that demonstrate different ways we can all be kind. Here are some of my favorites: What Does  It Mean To Be Kind  by Rana DiOrio Be Kind  by Pat Zietlow Miller Last Street on Market Street  by Matt de la Pena How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids  by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer Strictly No Elephants  by Lisa Mantchev Here are some additional resources for celebrating Valentine's Day with your students: Valentine's Day Activity Packet, Valentine's Day Math Word Problems, and Top Valentine's Day Printables for K-8. *This post contains affiliate links How do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Share with us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Author Bio Kelly Hiltz is a kindergarten teacher and mom of two boys in Massachusetts. Her happiest days are spent outside with a good book and a swim. She blogs about positive parent/teacher relationships at Ask a Teacher Mom.

Risk Management - 2283 Words

The metrics that best work to measure Xemba Translations performance on this project is project diagnostic metrics. While not all risks of a project can be mitigated, using this objective data based on these metrics will make a huge difference to mitigate risk. Using diagnostic project metrics is like using a thermometer to assess the projects current status. This can help eliminate or mitigate the issue before it becomes unmanageable at the close of the project. This can help avoid the, should have, could have, would have moments that may happen once the project closes and gets reviewed from a retrospective project metric. With the diagnostic project metric when an issue does arise a contingency plan can be created if there is a trend†¦show more content†¦This analysis has noted that the cost and the hours has returned negative numbers indicating that these two items have exceeded the earned value. While these numbers have exceeded the earned value the tasks have equaled ze ro indicating that currently the project is on task, while the days is actually a positive two indicating that we have earned more days that was planned to this point in the project. While this project is ahead of schedule, it is not far enough ahead of schedule to justify the reason why it is so far over budget and hours. The number of tasks to be completed is still the same as scheduled at this point in the project. These metrics are highlighting two items that could possibly lead to some changes and mandates to the project and this junction in the project. As the number of hours and cost are over the planned value it could be deduced that workers are putting in significant overtime to complete the tasks assigned. If these numbers would have not be analyzed until the completion of the project this could have gone unnoticed, again proving why these diagnostics help make informed decisions to mitigate risk and keep project on its planned, budgeted course. Data Actual cost: Cost- 112,586.02 Days- 76 Tasks- 21 complete Hours-Show MoreRelatedRisks And Risks Of Risk Management3542 Words   |  15 Pagesvalue of risk management in healthcare industries today. Not only is it difficult to quantify how risk is prevented because it didn’t happen; challenging measures need to be taken to assess risk managements effectiveness and efficiency. Risk management reduces the likelihood of specific losses by formulating tactical strategies and gathering data on potential threats in the workplace. 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This paper introduces the risk oversight function that is the responsibility of the boards, and reviews the origin and development of risk governance theory. Also, it discusses both risk governance frameworks and ISO 3000’ approach to the risk governance. At the end, there is an analysis of limitation of risk governance as pragmatic guidance for directors, and recommend 1) reducing risk governance limitation;Read MoreQuestions On Risk And Risk Management944 Words   |  4 Pages............................................................. 3 2. THE CONCEPT OF RISK............................................................ 3 2.1. Definition of Risk.......................................................... 3 2.2. Types of Risk............................................................... 3 2.3. Risk Assessment.......................................................... 4 2.4. Risk Management......................................................... 5 2.5. 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Understanding Faulkner s Madness By William Faulkner

Understanding Faulkner’s Madness William Faulkner s â€Å" A Rose for Emily † illustrates the extremes that someone may be driven to in the face of the â€Å" loveless † life that Miss Emily’s father created for her by driving away all the potential suitors. The major and minor events in the story help develop the plot idea that in the progress from an aristocratic but romanticized past to a more egalitarian present and future. Emily represents the standards and attitudes of the old south, and her inability to accept the changes of the new generation, leaving her even more isolated than ever. William Faulkner grew up in the south in Oxford, Mississippi. He treats life in the Southern United States as a symbol of humankind generally, emphasizing the decline of civilization and culture in the decades after the civil war. Emily Grierson is representative of this decline, for she stills lives by the old status long after the decline is past. It is not uncommon to find degraded and disturbed characters in Faulkner’s fiction. There is a literary tradition that came into its own in the twentieth century called Southern Gothic. Southern Gothic writers are interested in exploring the extreme, antisocial behaviors that were often just a reaction against a confining code of social conduct. Southern Gothic usually hinged on the belief that life and the social order were fragile and illusory, shadowing disturbing realities or twisted psyches. â€Å"A Rose for Emily† shows the impact that SouthernShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s Influence On The Sound And The Fury2240 Words   |  9 Pageson The Sound and the Fury As all writers do, Faulkner had many literary influences that can be seen in his writing. Faulkner once said, â€Å"I think everything a writer reads influences his work. He is completely immoral, he has no hesitancy whatever about taking what he wants from any source he wants† (Faulkner, â€Å"Blotner and Gwynn’s Classes, tape 2†). A major influence on Faulkner’s work is Shakespeare, especially on The Sound and the Fury. Faulkner used his love of Shakespeare to enable him toRead MoreCriticalpaper And A Rose For Emily1653 Words   |  7 Pagespressured to fit into their societal roles. Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and William Faulkner wrote stories inspired by those nineteenth-century social issues. Even though Faulkner wrote his story, â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, 40 years after Gilman’s story, â€Å"The Yellow Wall-paper†, both stories portray several types of nineteenth-century social issues accurately. Because of their knowledge about these social issues, Gilman and Faulkner were able to portray the main characters’ struggles. Both main charactersRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1356 Words   |  6 Pagesyoung, unnamed woman who is suffering with post-partum depression. In this time period, the treatment of mental illness typically did more harm than good as electroshock therapy, and the rest cure were the classic treatments of choice. Similarly, William Faulkner, the author of â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, written in 1930, gives the reader an inside look upon an elderly woman experiencing mental distress. Although there are major signs of an issue being present within Miss Emily’s old, southern house, the townRead MoreEssay on Modernism and New Criticism2997 Words   |  12 Pages since the definition of modernism often seems to constitute anything from being â€Å"new and common† to â€Å"new and uncommon† (Barzun). This term seems to be able to s tretch from the 1500’s to present; but for the sake of this essay the Modernist Era in question is that from the early twentieth century (circa 1910-1940’s). Out of, and during, this era the critical theory named New Criticism came into play. Although, nowadays, the use of New Criticism is unpopular, it is essential to use when definingRead Moreshakespeare influences16068 Words   |  65 Pagesï » ¿ RESEARCH TOPIC An Analytic Review Of Shakespearean Influence On Faulkner s Tragedy RESEARCH QUESTION How Shakespeare tragic patterns influenced on William Faulkner s writings? NAME: SYEDA AMBREEN FATIMA FATHER’S NAME: SYED HASAN AKHTER SEAT NO: 1315793 ENROLMENT NO: 2013/ENG/M.A(LIT)/15681 DATE OF SUBMISSION: 28TH NOV 2013 SUBMITTED TO: MISS SAMREENRead MoreHomosexuality in Victorian Literature Essay1847 Words   |  8 Pagesessentially famous for being famous, and for being homosexual in an age during which Britain was deciding what sexual deviance meant and whether to punish it. In The Trials of Oscar Wilde: Deviance, Morality And Late Victorian Society historian Michael S. Foldy advances a theory: Wilde, who was imprisoned for indecent acts with men, served as whipping-boy for larger societal anxieties over moral health--and as scapegoat for the crimes of Lord Roseberry, the homosexual Prime Minister. Whilst he hadRead MoreLiterature and Language10588 Words   |  43 Pages1990) Helmut Hatzfeld was the first biographer of stylistics and his work in A Critical Bibliography of the New Stylistics (1953) was continued by Louis Milic’s Style and stylistics (1967), Richard Bailey and Dolores Burton’ s English Stylistics (1968) and James Bennett’ s A Bibliography of Stylistics and Related Criticism (1986). Until Helmut Hatzfeld brought out his bibiography the word â€Å"stylistics† had not appeared in the title of any English book about style although â€Å"stylistique† had appeared

Development Of Christianity Free Essays

Christianity developed as a combination of Jewish monotheism and Roman universalism. It developed this way because it started out in a society that was anti-Jewish and Roman, and ended in a society that was Roman and Christian. Christians were originally persecuted by the Romans along with the Jews, who also persecuted them. We will write a custom essay sample on Development Of Christianity or any similar topic only for you Order Now One of the earliest people to spread Christianity to Greece and Asia Minor at the same time was the apostle Paul. Pauline Christianity synthesized the role of Jesus as a divine figure with Greek traditions. Christianity emerged from Judaism, but there are key differences to remember. The Jews view themselves as inheritors of a historical religious tradition that binds their society together no matter where it is. Christian eschatology does not view the coming of God as a historical event. The apostle Paul still left a definitive and lasting impression on Christian history and the way Jesus was thought of by the mass numbers that Paul was able to convert in Greece and Asia Minor. Paul, who received a vision of Jesus that blinded him, and then was miraculously healed, became one of the first Christian evangelists, spreading the word of Jesus throughout his lifetime. His traditional pattern of teaching was to begin speaking at a local synagogue, get thrown out, and continue to preach to the masses in more bucolic areas, establishing small churches through the teachings of Jesus that were later expanded in other evangelical trips. Through his wide travels, purposeful indifference to persecution, and the expostulation and sometime exhortation of the idea, still generally applied, that Christians cannot impose an ethnicity upon those who come into the faith, Paul spread the word of Christianity, performing exorcisms and miracles, guided by his concept of otherworldly forces while still being grounded in his ability to tell their voices from his own. Paul set a whole new precedent for participating in Jesus. It is also arguable that the prevailing conception of Jesus changed with the social territory Paul covered, graded upon the inhabitants’ prior belief systems as adaptive mechanisms that accepted while changing the idea of Jesus in ways that were primarily Jewish (paternalistic, monotheistic), Greek (Dionysian), and Roman (universalist). As time went on, the idea of Jesus returning to earth became less popular and the religion shifted from being persecuted to being accepted, revitalized, and set in a system of official theology. The idea of Jesus at this point changed as it was determined universally by council what was to be thought of Jesus; whether or not he was human or divine, submissive to the idea of the father, etc. It is easy for any society to take the parables of Jesus and do virtually anything with them, since many of the parables are so open-ended. Some of these confusions were cleared up by councilor definitions, and others were added. All of the gospel writers had a different agenda in presenting the life of Jesus; this is perhaps the main reason, apart from the natural flux of a changing  society, that the understanding of Jesus was capable of changing from age to age: the definitive texts on his message are often contradictory and are fairly open to interpretation. The formation of Christianity was basically a combination of Jewish monotheism and Roman universalism, perhaps with some Greek paganism as well. One of the earliest relationships between Christianity and the surrounding culture was highly influenced by the journeys of the apostle Paul. Paul went into different geographical regions as he spread the word of Christianity, as mentioned. â€Å"Paul worked intensely to collect money for ‘the poor among the saints at Jerusalem†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Considering the importance that Paul attaches to this mission, and also the stress on economic themes in Luke-Acts, it is very odd that Luke fails to mention either the poverty of the Jerusalem church or Paul’s Great Collection† (Schneider, 2002). All of the gospel writers had a different agenda in presenting the religion is not necessarily a whole and functioning world that is intrinsically separated from society; since it relies upon society to thrive, it must necessarily make allowances as this society changes. When dealing with Christianity and conceptions of Jesus throughout the Christian age, one must take into account societal and religious shifts as they occur synchronously. For example, for hundreds of years after the death of Jesus, Christians were not fully accepted, and were condemned and executed by the Romans. An exploration of the evolving understanding of Jesus at this point revolves around his parables and also the onset of Pauline Christianity. Although some skeptics outside of Christianity attribute the apostle Paul’s states of grace to a disease the apostle himself perhaps mentions in the Bible, and even within the Catholic church some argue that his visions may have been hallucinations or perhaps the result of a CNS disorder which carried him to spastic heights of epiphany, Paul still left a definitive and lasting impression on Christian history and the way Jesus was thought of by the mass numbers that Paul was able to convert, thus changing the face of Christianity to its status as a scourge in early Roman times to an official state religion towards the fall of Rome. REFERENCE Schneider, J.R. (2002).   The Good of Affluence.   Grand Rapids, MI:   William B.  Eerdmans. How to cite Development Of Christianity, Papers

Willmore Rake Hero Essay Example

Willmore Rake Hero Essay Wilmore is a â€Å"rake hero†. What is his ultimate impact on the audience? Is he to be admired or mocked? Why? Willmore epitomizes the libertine ideal of sexual freedom. He is an ambiguous figure who has charm and is witty, however is usually in danger of being mocked rather than the mocker. Attempted rape of one of the heroines in â€Å"The Rover†, suggests at the very least some mockery of the libertine hero. Wilmore is a sex addict repelled by commitment, â€Å"I am parlously afraid of being in love†. This addiction is presented as being ridiculous, so is the fact that at times he is in pursuit of the bottle as of women. Hellena and WiIllmore are very similar. But she exposes his double standards, as Wilmore cries â€Å"Thy lodging, thy lodging! Or I’m a dead man! † Hellena replies â€Å"why must we be either guilty of fornication or murder if we converse with you men† Hellena’s wit makes Willmore seem ridiculous here. She mocks the familiar libertine motif that the man will die if he is not sexually relieved and exposes Wilmore’s discourse of love, simply as crude sexual appetite. We will write a custom essay sample on Willmore Rake Hero specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Willmore Rake Hero specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Willmore Rake Hero specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Later she exposes the double standard within Wilmore’s ideology of sexual freedom â€Å"What shall I get? A cradle full of noise and mischief, with a pack of repentance at my back? † Fair one, would you would give me leave to gather at your bush this idle month; I would go near to make somebody smell of it all year after. Here the way Wilmore is plays on this metaphor of a rose to make sexual suggestions by using bush as a female genital symbol emphasises his seductiveness and wit. The fact that he is subtly being quite crude highlights his rakish character. Another way in which this comedic side is shown is when in the play he is paid by Angelica Bianca, the courtesan, due to her love for him. This is ironic as it is as if he is the prostitute and she is the customer thus inspiring laughter from the audience. Willmore’s tendency to ostensibly contradict himself is evident when he berates Angelica for laying a price on herself and judges her sinful. However his insincere moralistic tone is undermined by his hypocritical admission that â€Å"I am studying, madam, how to purchase you, though at present I am unprovided of money† This is amusing for the audience as Willmore comes f as a man who obviously doesn’t think before he speaks. Willmore’s rakish musings and behaviour are ridiculed by Behn and he is often an obstruction to Belville’s plans to meet Florinda. In addition, his rakish behaviour angers Angelica to the point where she threatens him with a pistol for his false promises, Willmore is viewed a s helpless and inclined to be mocked by the audience as he knocked down a peg from his usual foppish behaviour. However marriage compromises the excessive freedom of a libertine philosophy, while also keeping Willmore’s liberty intact because he, in fact, chooses to marry Hellena out of his own free will, this being a commendable thing for Willmore. Willmore’s smooth talking witty persona wins the hearts of many naive women; this is indeed amusing for the audience who are able to see through Willmore’s motives much to the other characters ignorance. A man without a conscience wants nothing more than to enjoy the pleasures of other women, adverse to commitment, but seemingly has a reverse effect on the women he entices. The irony however lies in the fact he is inspired to fidelity by meeting his own match in the form of Hellena. However because Willmore chooses to settle down rather than continue his libertine lifestyle shows that even the most rakish of all can be admired in some aspects.

Cambodia - The Past and Present essays

Cambodia - The Past and Present essays Cambodia, then, like so many other nations in the developing world, is an agricultural country, and, regarding the cash incomes of its people, desperately poor. In the past, Cambodia was able to earn foreign exchange to pay for imported goods by selling agricultural surpluses-of rice and corn, for example-or plant crops, such as pepper, rubber, and cotton. Its normal patterns of trade were broken up in the wars of the 1970s. When the fighting died down, Cambodian trade became lively again, but more informal, which benefited many individual traders but deprived the government of money it needed to pay for essential services, like electricity, schools, water, and highways. There was some question at the end of the 1980s if Cambodia would ever be able to trade its way back into the kind of prosperity that it had enjoyed in earlier times. Of course, the word "prosperity" is a relative one. Even in the peaceful 1960s, Cambodia was one of the poorest countries in eastern Asia, at least regarding individual income. It is hard for even a relatively poor Westerner to imagine just how poor-in terms of cash, choices about the future, and possessions-a Cambodian farmer or unskilled laborer has always been, or what an annual income of less than the equivalent of two hundred dollars means in terms of the everyday life of farmers and their families. In nearly all Cambodian families, everyone works hard to grow the food and earn money needed to survive. Even so, by international standards, most Cambodians are very poor. Being poor in Cambodia means eating less than a pound of meat a month, and a family's earning less than six hundred dollars from a rice crop that has occupied most of its labor, intensively, for the equivalent of three months. For most Cambodians, there is a little question of new clothes, gadgets, or vacations. The money from the rice crop has to last the farming family for an entire year unless the husband leaves hom...

What Is Transcendentalism Understanding the Movement

What Is Transcendentalism Understanding the Movement SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Confused about transcendentalism? You’re not alone! Transcendentalism is a movement that many people developed over a long period of time, and as a result, its complexity can make it hard to understand. That’s where we come in. Read this article to learn a simple but complete transcendentalism definition, key transcendentalist beliefs, an overview of the movement's history, key players, and examples of transcendentalist works. By the end, you’ll have all the information you need to write about or discuss the transcendentalist movement. What Is Transcendentalism? It’s all about spirituality. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that began in the mid-19th century and whose founding members included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. It centers around the belief that spirituality cannot be achieved through reason and rationalism, but instead through self-reflection and intuition. In other words, transcendentalists believe spirituality isn’t something you can explain; it’s something you feel. A transcendentalist would argue that going for a walk in a beautiful place would be a much more spiritual experience than reading a religious text. The transcendentalism movement arose as a resultof a reaction to Unitarianism as well as the Age of Reason. Both centered on reason as the main source of knowledge, but transcendentalists rejected that notion. Some of the transcendentalist beliefs are: Humans are inherently good Society and its institutions such as organized religion and politics are corrupting. Instead of being part of them, humans should strive to be independent and self-reliant Spirituality should come from the self, not organized religion Insight and experience are more important than logic Nature is beautiful, should be deeply appreciated, and shouldn’t be altered by humans Major Transcendentalist Values The transcendentalist movement encompassed many beliefs, but these all fit into their three main values of individualism, idealism, and the divinity of nature. Individualism Perhaps the most important transcendentalist value was the importance of the individual. They saw the individual as pure, and they believed that society and its institutions corrupted this purity. Transcendentalists highly valued the concept of thinking for oneself and believed people were best when they were independent and could think for themselves. Only then could individuals come together and form ideal communities. Idealism The focus on idealism comes from Romanticism, a slightly earlier movement. Instead of valuing logic and learned knowledge as many educated people at the time did, transcendentalists placed great importance on imagination, intuition and creativity. They saw the values of the Age of Reason as controlling and confining, and they wanted to bring back a more â€Å"ideal† and enjoyable way of living. Divinity of Nature Transcendentalists didn’t believe in organized religion, but they were very spiritual. Instead of believing in the divinity of religious figures, they saw nature as sacred and divine. They believed it was crucial for humans to have a close relationship with nature, the same way religious leaders preach about the importance of having a close relationship with God. Transcendentalists saw nature as perfect as it was; humans shouldn’t try to change or improve it. History of the Transcendentalist Movement What’s the history of transcendentalism? Here’s an overview of the movement, covering its beginning, height, and eventual decline. Origins While people had begun discussing ideas related to transcendentalism since the early 1800s, the movement itself has its origins in 1830s New England, specifically Massachusetts. Unitarianism was the major religion in the area, and it emphasized spirituality and enlightenment through logic, knowledge, and rationality. Young men studying Unitarianism who disagreed with these beliefs began to meet informally. Unitarianism was a particularly large part of life at Harvard University, where many of the first transcendentalists attended school. In September 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson organized the first meeting of what would later be called the Transcendental Club. Together the group discussed frustrations of Unitarianism and their main beliefs, drawing on ideas from Romanticism, German philosophers, and the Hindu spiritual texts the Upanishads. The transcendentalists begin to publish writings on their beliefs, beginning with Emerson’s essay â€Å"Nature.† Height The Transcendental Club continued to meet regularly, drawing in new members, and key figures, particularly Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, published numerous essays to further spread transcendentalist beliefs. In 1840, the journal The Dial was created for transcendentalists to publish their works. Utopia communities, such as Brook Farm and Fruitlands attempted to make transcendentalism a complete lifestyle. Decline By the end of the 1840s, many key transcendentalists had begun to move onto other pursuits, and the movement declined. This decline was further hastened by the untimely death of Margaret Fuller, one of the leading transcendentalists and cofounder of The Dial. While there was a smaller second wave of transcendentalism during this time, the brief resurgence couldn’t bring back the popularity the movement had enjoyed the previous decade, and transcendentalism gradually faded from public discourse, although people still certainly share the movement’s beliefs. Even recently, movies such as The Dead Poets Society and The Lion King express transcendentalist beliefs such as the importance of independent thinking, self-reliance, and enjoying the moment. Key Figures in the Transcendentalist Movement At its height, many people supported the beliefs of transcendentalism, and numerous well-known names from the 19th century have been associated with the movement. Below are five key transcendentalists. Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson is the key figure in transcendentalism. He brought together many of the original transcendentalists, and his writings form the foundation of many of the movement’s beliefs. The day before he published his essay â€Å"Nature† he invited a group of his friends to join the â€Å"Transcendental Club† a meeting of like-minded individuals to discuss their beliefs. He continued to host club meetings, write essays, and give speeches to promote transcendentalism. Some of his most important transcendentalist essays include â€Å"The Over-Soul,† â€Å"Self-Reliance,† â€Å"The American Scholar† and â€Å"Divinity School Address.† Henry David Thoreau The second-most important transcendentalist, Thoreau was a friend of Emerson’s who is best known for his book Walden. Walden is focused on the benefits of individualism, simple living and close contact with and observation of nature. Thoreau also frequently opposed the government and its actions, most notably in his essay â€Å"Civil Disobedience.† Margaret Fuller Margaret Fuller was perhaps the leading female transcendentalist. A well-known journalist and ardent supporter of women’s rights, she helped cofound The Dial, the key transcendentalist journal, with Emerson, which helped cement her place in the movement and spread the ideas of transcendentalism to a wider audience. An essay she wrote for the journal was later published as the book Woman in the Nineteenth Century, one of the earliest feminist works in the United States. She believed in the importance of the individual, but often felt that other transcendentalists, namely Emerson, focused too much on individualism at the expense of social reform. Amos Bronson Alcott A friend of Emerson’s, Alcott (father of Little Women’s Louisa May Alcott), was an educator known for his innovative ways of teaching and correcting students. He wrote numerous pieces on transcendentalism, but the quality of his writing was such that most were unpublishable. A noted abolitionist, he refused to pay his poll tax to protest President Tyler’s annexation of Texas as a slave territory. This incident inspired Thoreau to do a similar protest, which led to him writing the essay â€Å"Civil Disobedience.† Frederic Henry Hedge Frederic Henry Hedge met Emerson when both were students at Harvard Divinity School. Hedge was studying to become a Unitarian minister, and he had already spent several years studying music and literature in Germany. Emerson invited him to join the first meeting of the Transcendental Club (originally called Hedge’s Club, after him), and he attended meetings for several years. He wrote some of the earliest pieces later categorized as Transcendentalist works, but he later became somewhat alienated from the group and refused to write pieces for The Dial. George Ripley Like Hedge, Ripley was also a Unitarian minister and founding member of the Transcendental Club. He founded the Utopian community Brook Farm based on major Transcendentalist beliefs. Brook Farm residents would work the farm (whichever jobs they found most appealing) and use their leisure time to pursue activities they enjoyed, such as dancing, music, games, and reading. However, the farm was never able to do well financially, and the experiment ended after just a few years. Criticisms of Transcendentalism From its start, transcendentalism attracted numerous critics for its nontraditional, and sometimes outright alien, ideas. Many transcendentalists were seen as outcasts, and many journals refused to publish works written by them. Below are some of the most common criticisms. Spirituality Over Organized Religion For most people, the most shocking aspect of transcendentalism was that it promoted individual spirituality over churches and other aspects of organized religion. Religion was the cornerstone of many people’s lives at this time, and any movement that told them it was corrupting and to give it up would have been unfathomable to many. Over-Reliance on Independence Many people, even some transcendentalists like Margaret Fuller, felt that transcendentalism at times ignored the importance of community bonds and over-emphasized the need to rely on no one but one’s self, to the point of irresponsibility and destructiveness. Some people believe that Herman Melville’s book Moby Dick was written as a critique of complete reliance on independence. In the novel, the character Ahab eschews nearly all bonds of camaraderie and is focused solely on his goal of destroying the white whale. This eventually leads to his death. Margaret Fuller also felt that transcendentalism could be more supportive of community initiatives to better the lives of others, such as by advocating for women’s and children’s rights. Abstract Values Have a hard time understanding what transcendentalists really wanted? So did a lot of people, and it made them view the movement as nothing more than a bunch of dreamers who enjoyed criticizing traditional values but weren’t sure what they themselves wanted. Edgar Allen Poe accused the movement of promoting â€Å"obscurity for obscurity's sake.† Unrealistic Utopian Ideals Some people viewed the transcendentalists’ focus on enjoying life and maximizing their leisure time as hopelessly naive and idealistic. Criticism frequently focused on the Utopian communities some transcendentalists created to promote communal living and the balance of work and labor. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who stayed at the Brook Farm communal living experiment, disliked his experience so much that he wrote an entire novel, The Blithedale Romance, criticizing the concept and transcendentalist beliefs in general. Major Transcendentalist Works Many transcendentalists were prolific writers, and examples abound of transcendentalism quotes, essays, books, and more. Below are four examples of transcendentalist works, as well as which of the transcendentalist beliefs they support. â€Å"Self-Reliance† by Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson wrote this essay in 1841 to share his views on the issue of, you guessed it, self-reliance. Throughout the essay he discusses the importance of individuality and how people must avoid the temptation to conform to society at the expense of their true selves. It also contains the excellent line â€Å"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.† There are three main ways Emerson says people should practice self-reliance is through non-conformity (â€Å"A man must consider what a blindman's-bluff is this game of conformity†), solitude over society (â€Å"the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude†), and spirituality that is found in one’s own self (â€Å"The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps†). Self-reliance and an emphasis on the individual over community is a core belief of transcendentalism, and this essay was key in developing that view. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Published in 1855, the first edition of Leaves of Grass included 12 untitled poems. Whitman was a fan of Emerson’s and was thrilled when the latter highly praised his work. The poems contain many transcendentalism beliefs, including an appreciation of nature, individualism, and spirituality. A key example is the poem later titled â€Å"Song of Myself† which begins with the line â€Å"I celebrate myself† and goes on to extoll the benefits of the individual â€Å"Welcome is every organ and attribute of me†, the enjoyment of nature (â€Å"The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark colored sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn†), the goodness of humans (â€Å"You shall possess the good of the earth and sun†), and the connections all humans share (â€Å"For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you†). â€Å"The Summer Rain† by Henry David Thoreau This transcendentalism poem, like many of Thoreau’s works, focuses on the beauty and simplicity of nature. Published in 1849, the poem describes the narrator’s delight at being in a meadow during a rainstorm. The poem frequently mentions the enjoyment that observing nature can bring, and there are many descriptions of the meadow such as, â€Å"A clover tuft is pillow for my head/And violets quite overtop my shoes.†But Thoreau also makes a point to show that he believes nature is more enjoyable and a better place to learn from than intellectual pursuits like reading and studying. He begins the poem with this verse: â€Å"My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read/'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large/Down in the meadow, where is richer feed,/And will not mind to hit their proper targe† and continues later on with â€Å"Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough,/What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town,/If juster battles are enacted now/Between the ants upon this hummock’s crown?† He makes clear that he is comparing works of Shakespeare and Homer to the joys of nature, and he finds nature the better and more enjoyable way to learn. This is in line with Transcendentalist beliefs that insight and experience are more rewarding than book learning. â€Å"What Is Beauty?† by Lydia Maria Child Lydia Maria Child, a women’s rights activist and abolitionist, wrote this essay, which was published in The Dial in 1843. The essay discusses what constitutes beauty and how we can appreciate beauty. It frequently references the transcendentalist theme that intuition and insight are more important than knowledge for understanding when something is beautiful, such as in the line â€Å"Beauty is felt, not seen by the understanding.† All the knowledge in the world can’t explain why we see certain things as beautiful; we simply know that they are. Summary: Transcendentalism Definition What’s a good transcendentalism definition? Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement centered around spirituality that was popular in the mid-19th century. Key transcendentalism beliefs were that humans are inherently good but can be corrupted by society and institutions, insight and experience and more important than logic, spirituality should come from the self, not organized religion, and nature is beautiful and should be respected. The transcendentalist movement reached its height in the 1830s and 1840s and included many well-known people, most notably Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalists wrote widely, and by reading their works you can get a better sense of the movement and its core beliefs. What's Next? Taking the AP Literature exam? Check out our ultimate guide to the AP English Literature testandour list of AP Literature practice tests. No matter what you're reading, it's important to understand literary devices. Here are 31 literary devices you should know. There's a lot of imagery in transcendentalism poems and other writings. Learn everything you need to know about imagery by reading our guide.