Key Words: wilderness, perceptions
National Standard: 6
State Standard: 11
Teaching Level
Lesson Introduction
Objectives/Purpose
Materials
Procedure
How culture and experience influence people's perceptions
of places and regions.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the physical
and human geographic features that define places and
regions.
2. Distribute readings from William Bradford and Frederick Law Olmsted.
3. Divide the class into groups of four, comprised of
a leader, who will keep the discussion on track, an
analyst/recorder, who will listen to the different
perspectives and summarize them, and one spokesperson
each for William Bradford and Frederick Law Olmsted.
Spokespeople will read their selections, then present
them to the group in a discussion/debate. Group members
will summarize the major points of each author, determine
the differences between them, and speculate as to the
reasons for these differences.
4. Provide standard library resource materials on the two authors in the classroom. Each group will consult these sources to learn about the two authors and to assess whether or not their speculations about the reasons for their differences are valid.
5. Meet as a whole group to discuss group findings.
6. Engage the class in a discussion about the role of wilderness in American life today. Possible questions to include are:
Is the preservation of wilderness areas important today? Why or why not?
Does the preservation of national or state parks mean that we then return to our communities from camping trips and place our used styrofoam cups in the local landfill?
What responsibilities do we as citizens have for the American landscape? How can we best fulfill these responsibilities?
How have perceptions of wild places changed substantially over time? Why? Do changes in perception represent changes in fundamental values?
6. Students should write on one of these questions in
essay form for homework.
Evaluation/Assessment
Extension/Enrichment
Additional Standards
Reflection
Thank you,
The authors.
WILLIAM BRADFORD AND THE
"HIDEOUS AND DESOLATE WILDERNESS," 1620-1635
Bradford records the responses of the Pilgrims upon landing at Plymouth.
"Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought
saf to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed
the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast
& furious ocean, and delivered them from all the
perils & miseries thereof, again to set their feet
on the firm and stable earth, their proper element....Being
thus past the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before
in their preparation (as may be remembered by that
which went before), they had now no friends to welcome
them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten
bodies, no houses or much less towns to repair to,
to seek for succor. It is recorded in scripture as
a mercy to the apostle & his shipwrecked company,
that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in
refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when
they met with them (as after will appear) were readier
to fill their sides full of arrows then otherwise.
And for the season it was winter, and they that know
the winters of that country know them to be sharp &
violent, & subject to cruel and fierce storms,
dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search
an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but
a hideous & desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts
& wild men? and what multitudes there might be
of them they knew not. Neither could they, as it were,
go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness
a more goodly country to feed their hopes; for which
way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to the
heavens) they could have litle solace or content in
respect of any outward objects. For summer being done,
all things stand upon them with a weatherbeaten face;
and the whole country, full of woods & thickets,
represented a wild & savage hue. If they looked
behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they
had passed, and was now as a mainbar & gulf to
separate them from all the civil parts of the world....What
could now sustain them but the spirit of God &
his grace? May not & ought not the children of
these fathers, rightly say: Our fathers were Englishmen
which came over this great ocean, and were ready to
perish in this wilderness...."
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED
ON THE VALUE OF NATURAL PLACES, 1865
"It is a scientific fact that the occasional contemplation
of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly
if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief
from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habits,
is favorable to the health and vigor of men and especially
to the health and vigor of their intellect beyond any
other conditions which can be offered them, that it
not only gives pleasure for the time being but increases
the subsequent capacity for happiness and the means
of securing happiness. The want of such occasional
recreation where men and women are habitually presses
by their business or household cares often results
in a class of disorders the characteristic quality
of which is mental disability, sometimes taking the
severe forms of softening of the brain, paralysis,
palsy, monomania, or insanity, but more frequently
of mental and nervous excitability, moroseness, melancholy
or irascibility, incapacitating the subject for the
proper exercise of the intellectual and moral forces....
If we analyze the operation of scenes of beauty upon
the mind, and consider the intimate relation of the
mind upon the nervous system and the whole physical
economy, the action and reaction which constantly occur
between bodily and mental conditions, the reinvigoration
which results from such scenes is readily comprehended."
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