Emilio Hernandez

Storer
English 3 Honors Block 5
1/21/20

Socratic Circle on Emerson and Thoreau

The group performed very well. Not only did they extend the story’s message to a single
topic that they relate to, but to the whole world and current events. My group talked about
Waldens aspects with nature, and also Self Reliance. Claudine did a good job of mentioning how
we don’t really care for something until we lose it, just as we didn’t care about Australia and its
animals until the fires started spreading. I also pointed out how being the richest country in the
world, the US is never fully satisfied with what they have and due to this, have the highest rate of
depression as a country. This brought light to how we have to learn to “live simply” just as it was
stated in the excerpt.
I think that I did very well when it was my turn to speak. I provided textual evidence, by
pointing to where I am basing my thoughts off of. I allowed the class to get to where I was
reading in order for them to follow along and not be lost. Like I said before, I stated the statistics
on depressions with the countries and its correlation to the desire for “more”. This opened up a
new door to a different perspective for others to talk and place their input. One thing that I would
have done differently was that I should have stuck more to only evidence from the text. Although
I did do this by talking and supporting what my peers had said, my strongest argument was not
directly from the text.
My thesis would be: One must slow down from all the fast media in society and focus on
the simplicity of what God has provided for us.
I would talk about how in today’s world, we are always focusing on the wrong things.
People are glued to their phones and due to this miss out on the real beauty in from of us. God
has placed everything we need in front of us but we are blinded by materialistic things. We must
learn to give up what we truly don’t need in order to find out what we do need. We need to
appreciate the earth around us because if we don’t, we will lose it. People have neglected climate
change and due to this, we are running out of time for a solution to fix it.
I have been living in a revolutionary technological boom all throughout my life.
Everything I want to know is at the tip of my fingertips. This comes with problems though,
instead of living life with human interaction, one typically prefers to stay attached to the phone. I
have seen this problem passed on from adults to little kids. It’s crazy seeing a kid be able to use
an iPad as if it were second-hand nature but can not actually appreciate nature and the world
outside. Through is right when he said to live simply and even more now with all these
distractions, we must put them aside and live as one with nature.