Walden’s Wall fosters the WA community
March 25, 2019
Found outside the Wright library, Walden’s Wall has attracted the students of Westford Academy through the several colorful notes promoting a positive environment.
Created by juniors Isabella Xu, Grace Pu and Caroline Wang, the wall is filled with many positive compliments written by anonymous individuals for the students and staff of Westford Academy.
Xu, Pu, and Wang created the wall because of a discussion they had in their English class about transcendentalism. Their English teacher, Lynn Bonakdar, assigned them a project based on impacting their community through transcendentalism.
The wall’s name comes from Walden Pond, where transcendentalist thinker Henry David Thoreau was inspired by nature and stood by one of his most prominent preachings, individualism.
They decided to come up with an idea where everyone at Westford Academy has a chance at spreading positivity.
“We had a discussion in class about how our school doesn’t have a very strong sense of community, especially within our grade. In general there’s a lack of community, so we thought what better way to spread positivity [than create a compliments wall], ” Wang said.
Walden’s Wall has been very popular among the students. Originally, Xu, Wang and Pu were going to recycle the compliment cards once a month, but judging from the number of submissions received, they decided to make it every two weeks.
“We put out around 100 plus sheets last week and by, I think, Thursday or Friday, they were all gone. So, we set out about 30 or 40 more this morning and they are already gone.” Wang said.
To improve Walden’s wall, Xu, Wang, and Pu are going to add a box where people can collect compliment cards written for them.
“We wanted to make it special so that people could pick up the ones that they did receive. Basically, we’re going to have another box, like a collection box, so if you were the recipient of one from the last two weeks, you can pick it up and take it home,” Wang said.
Many students believe a wall that spreads positivity during this time of the year when everyone is stressed is a good idea.
“I think [Walden’s Wall] is a great idea. I think that more positive energy in this school can really be very useful, especially this time of the year when everyone’s really stressed,” sophomore Jazmin Rodriguez said.
