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INTRODUCTION This is the third collection of work by students who were enrolled in the 'Meet Mr. Thoreau' elective at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, in Sudbury, Mass. Two years have elapsed since the 150th anniversary of Walden, but some at our school are not waiting for the next century-and-a-half to celebrate a man who still takes them deep into the meaning of life. Thoreau is long gone, but the questions he addresses and the way he addresses them make his work relevant, contemporary, and memorable for all who read him. At L-S, students have an opportunity to 'meet' Thoreau while reading four of his essays (Walking, Life Without Principle, Civil Disobedience, and A Plea For Captain John Brown). They have further meetings while walking in the woods behind the school, tracking his footsteps through Concord, listening to frog sounds in the dark around our classroom 'campfire,' and watching the sun rise over Walden. In all these ways, we have tried to encounter the mind and spirit of a thoughtful man armed with a stubborn integrity. Herein you will also find the fruits of that encounter: journal entries (some from inside Lincoln-Sudbury's student-constructed Thoreau cabin replica)), nature writing, poems, leaf haikus, plans for pencil projects, artwork, and photographs. Thoreau warned us that too often education makes a 'straight cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.' What a timely warning! I hope that readers will agree that, with the help of Henry David Thoreau, these L-S students have put the meanders back in. Special thanks to Christine Stott ('06), one of those students, for helping to edit and assemble this collection. Bill Schechter
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