"I mean, how much can you really say about ice melting?”

And you think reading Thoreau is tough? Teaching Thoreau is tough. Check it out:

Note to Educators. Thoreau, one of America's most important and inspiring philosophers, can be tough to teach. It's not easy to dispel his stereotypes as a curmudgeon and hermit, or else a nature-gazing cloud-head, when you have only a few classes in which to present his works and thoughts.

• Worse yet, the opening chapters of Walden can be seriously off-putting to many students. Better to choose among the more subtle and eloquent chapters, like "The Pond in Winter" or "Former Inhabitants" or "Spring," for an introductory assignment.
• But ─ which chapters always turn up in the anthologies? The off-putting ones.
  [Click here to read astounding examples of student reactions.]

Be sure to read the essay at:
http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thoroteens.html

My favorite student reaction:

“The things this dude said made absolutely no sense [and] we get to see what neurosis plagued his diseased mind…. Pages upon pages of vivid description about scenery, the little fighting ants, the whippor-whill, the squirrels under the floorboards, the bees … how they infested his cozy little shack … what do we care about his pests in nature? I mean, how much can you really say about ice melting?”