Walt Whitman's Impact On Education

Whitman’s students lay in grass to watch lady bugs and waded through ponds to catch frogs. Why?—Because Whitman did not see the merit in students learning through second-hand methods. “…But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll” He wanted to truly show his students the world, as closely as possible, recognizing he could learn as much from them as they could from him. In many ways, Whitman helped the American education system along, though he would surely still criticize it today. In Whitman’s poems, Song of Myself, number forty six and forty seven, he boldly states many of his radical ideas which continue to be profound insights, and have helped many rethink our current education systems. Walt Whitman believed firmly in the idea of hands-on learning and the
“Not I, not anyone can travel that road for you, /You must travel it for yourself,” Whitman avows. Clearly and firmly, Whitman believes that he is the guide, and the student in many ways teaches themselves. He also recognized a mutual relationship between the student and the teacher. “If you tire, give me both burdens…and in due time you shall repay the same service to me.” He also “will you be a bold swimmer,” avoiding a word such as dare or force, saying he wishes, or guides or prods, but does not push. Finally, he takes this ideology a step further. “He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own, /He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher,” willing his students and readers to out-do him, and even destroy him. By destroy, however, he most likely means able to defeat in whatever task has been taught in a thorough way. Walt Whitman obviously felt the student should be able to go further than the teacher in the end, if the student so chose to travel the