Message from jschilp

[Anonymous]

Being an avid fan of Henry David Thoreau, I knew the great impact of literature of India on the transcendentalists and how similar many of his ideas are to the Tao but I never made a connection to our Founding Fathers and Asia. Ben Franklin being my favorite of the bunch, I'm even more impressed now that I know he poured over whatever he could of the philosophies of the East. I just wish there was more appreciation and praise for the values that came from there.
As far as incorporating these ideas into my classroom, I'm going to draw more connections from Confucius and Lao Tzu to Jefferson and Franklin. I'll share this with the history teacher next door to me & see if he can blend it into his curriculum as well when he gets to that part of American history.