È ENGLISH LESSON 7 Wilderness Connections Objective: Students will: identify authors views of the connections between people, society, and Wilderness Background: There is increasing public involvement in setting priorities and making decisions on wilderness policies. The public attitude, or value system, relating to wilderness is both affected by and reflected in literature. This activity is designed to show how wilderness has been valued by famous authors and how their views have affected contemporary values. Each author represents a unique way of relating to the landscape around them and how Wilderness inspires adventure, introspection and expression. Students will read one (or more) of the recommended readings, respond to discussion questions, and conduct a writing exercise adopting an author s point of view on the connection between wilderness/wildlands to people. Activity 1: Connecting With Wilderness Duration: one to five class periods with additional homework Location: classroom Materials: Wilderness Reader: Come On In, Edward Abbey; On the Brink of Yosemite Falls, John Muir; and Crossing Into Eden, Wallace Stegner. discussion questions, pages 313-316. Procedure: 1. If you teach urban students who have little or no experience or connection with natural areas, you should consider showing one of these videos found in the Wilderness Box: Wilderness and the Imagination, An Act of Contrition, or The Last Parable. 2. Let students select one (or more) of the readings. Provide discussion questions with assigned reading to help guide the student s reading. 3. Ask the students to answer questions by leading a class discussion on the reading or as a writing assignment. Page 311
ENGLISH È Evaluation / Follow-up / Extension Response to discussion questions in written or oral form can be graded. Ask students to respond to the following questions: Identify opinions and pick out words used to express opinions in the writing. Which phrases or words seem to be most effective in communicating a writer s opinions? Could some conflicting viewpoints be present within the same writer? If so, how? Give examples. Career Options: Nature writer, naturalist, environmental educator, teacher References: Abbey, Edward. The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West. New York, NY. 1977. Teal Edwin Way, ed. The Wilderness World of John Muir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1954. Stegner, Wallace. Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs. New York, NY: Penguin Books. 1992. Page 312
È ENGLISH Come On In by Edward Abbey Background: Edward Abbey (1927-1989) is best know for his books, Desert Solitaire, Monkey Wrench Gang and Hayduke Lives. He is often viewed as the father of radical environmentalism. But in this piece, another side of Abbey is seen: his love and appreciation of the land. Students will understand Edward Abbey s perspective of the land being a book, the concept of reading a landscape to understand the landscape s history and spiritual nature, and the human relationship with the land. 1. What part of the country is Abbey writing about? Use a map to point out the land, its location, and how you would get there from here. Has anyone been to this part of the country? If so, have students describe the country. Answers may vary. 2. What verbs does Abbey use to describe the landscape in the beginning of the essay? What other tools does he use to describe the landscape? Surreal, strange, marvelous. Abbey describes the geologic processes and terms, and he uses the perspective of geologic history to convey a sense of mystery and intrigue. Abbey is drawn to the landscape. The connection is inspired by his introspection on its creation. 3. Abbey writes that the land is like a great book. What does he mean by this? It invites approaches towards comprehension on many levels, from all directions. 4. According to Abbey, what must both the poet and the scientist have in order to best understand the landscape? The ability to communicate a sense of love and wonder of what his work discovers. 5. What value does Abbey discuss? Abbey touches on the economic values of the resource that are extracted from these landscapes - what they can dig and haul away. He also touches on the regional and international treasure of land; emptiness, its most feared or hated quality, emptiness is also its most valuable. Page 313
ENGLISH È On the Brink of Yosemite Falls by John Muir Background: John Muir (1838-1914) is considered to be one of the most prominent proponents of land preservation in the 19th century. He founded the Sierra Club in 1890 and fought the famous fight to preserve Hetch Hetchy Valley, a valley similar and adjacent to Yosemite Valley. His Thousand Mile Walk and early ramblings in the Sierra as a naturalist and mountaineer were recorded through his journals. This story is one of many where he tests his own limits and risks danger to experience the power of nature. Experience is a key concept for understanding nature for Muir. Students will get a taste of Muir s aesthetic relationship with the power of nature and be exposed to the concept of risk and exploration. 1. Have students been to Yosemite? What is their own personal experience with this place? Answers will vary. 2. What does Muir mean when he says so boundless an affluence of sublime beauty? This is open to interpretation. Students may look up the words to help get an image. Sublime is a word Muir uses a lot. It seems to replace what might otherwise be beyond language. Discuss word choice with students and have them find passages where Muir creates an image. Muir is a master at invoking image. 3. How does fear affect Muir? He seems to thrive on it, however he also expresses tremendous respect for the powers he fears, is willing to accept the fear and manage or overcome it by using that very power. 4. Why do you think Muir took the risk he did? What drove Muir to explore and stand on the precarious edge of Yosemite Falls? He truly wanted to experience it to his fullest capacity. He was drawn closer and wanted to connect in the strongest way possible not just to a thing - the waterfall - but the whole process and moment. 5. Did Muir become closer to nature through his adventure? Do you think it affected his perception of nature? How? This event will be lodged in Muir s psyche. His strong connection will not only be a memory of adventure, but something he will build, in further explorations, into understanding and feeling connected to nature. Page 314
È ENGLISH Crossing Into Eden by Wallace Stegner Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) was a professor of English at Stanford University. He was a prolific writer of conservation issues, the American West and stories of his childhood and changing perspective of the West. Students will gain the perspective of the wilderness visitor and understand the benefits and drawbacks of our human desire for wilderness travels. 1. This story is written over 60 years after it occurred. What stood out most in Stegner s memory of this trip? Why do you think these memories have lasted 60 years? Possible response: Perhaps it was his first trip into wilderness. Since his memory is so clear, he must have been keenly attentive, not only to details, but to feelings that it invoked in him and a sense of great wonder and enchantment. It obviously made a tremendous impression, in fact it may have directed his interests and profession. These memories of significant life experiences will live in each of us for long periods of time. It is interesting to think that maybe he hasn t thought about it in a long time, then all of sudden that memory is clear. 2. Of his memories of this trip, what do you think had the most profound affect upon Stegner; the fishing? the martens? the flowers? the hike? Why? Any or all of them. His attention to these represents a connection with wildness. His personal hiking journey gave him a sense of humility that placed him in a closer connection to everything else in the landscape. 3. Why does Stegner reveal the location of this place? Why would he usually not? By revealing the place, Stegner has not destroyed the experience or his connection to the landscape. 4. How has Wilderness protection affected the landscape Stegner describes? Has it helped? Has it changed? How? Wilderness designation may have had an impact on the amount of recreation use the area receives. This may have had an effect upon the martins and their habits; it may have disturbed the flowers or the fishing. But he points out that it has provided us with places that to the best of our ability, are protected for natural processes to continue. Page 315
ENGLISH È Crossing Into Eden by Wallace Stegner 5. What does Stegner mean when he says the best thing we have learned from Wilderness is restraint? Perhaps that, as a culture, we have learned to place values on wild places. That we don t simply see what economic benefits they hold but rather the intrinsic values of wild places. 6. For Stegner, why do we visit these places? What does it mean for our soul s sake? Answers may vary. This would be a good place to discuss the term intrinsic. Page 316