Caroline Dillard Outside Reading 1: Huckleberries by Thoreau

 I recently read Huckleberries by Thoreau. He makes a beautiful analogy that connects learning from experience in nature and book learning. He uses huckleberries picked straight from the field as an analogy of knowledge gained from experience in nature. The berry or piece of knowledge that is gained straight from nature is of the highest quality and is the most satisfying and pure. Thoreau believes that one’s love for nature leads to reading books and that the two ways of learning should not be separated. Thoreau also discusses the intrinsic beauty of nature that goes overlooked and how instead nature is treated as a material commodity to be exploited and profited upon. Thoreau expresses his desire for preservation of forests, rivers, and other natural landscapes. Reading this left me feeling sad that not everyone understands the beauty of nature. Although we have put aside land for national parks and preservation, many lots of natural landscapes were destroyed for human “progress." Reading this made me appreciate both learning from nature and in the classroom. Sometimes I am too bogged down in the gritty details I've learned in lecture, when I really can just go outside and see things for myself. Going out and touching a tree, looking at the veins of leaves, noticing the coloration of the petals of a flower, or hearing the various animal sounds will always be better than looking in a textbook or pictures on a PowerPoint.