Students are always being told to do their best and that there is intrinsic value to putting in a hard day of work, regardless of whether they achieve what they set out to do. Students are also expected to achieve results from their work. After all, there seems to be little value in working so hard if goals aren’t met in the end. All students must balance these conflicting expectations throughout their lives and figure out their own way to define the value of their efforts.
Henry David Thoreau’s time spent at Walden Pond was not a fluke; it was a carefully planned and executed choice to live deliberately according to Thoreau’s transcendental beliefs. I would use a study of Walden to connect to the Lao …