Emerson, just like Locke, sees the value of school and books in his text “The American Scholar”. He states that they are, “the best type of the influence of the past, and perhaps we shall get at the truth, – learn the amount of this influence more conveniently” (Emerson 3). Learning from books can be beneficial, because this way one can gain insight about what happened in the past, act the same way people in the past did when it did work, or change the way things need to get done if it is noticed that that was not the best way to go about it then. Having another man’s insight through books can help form an opinion in one’s mind so they can make better decisions in the future.

However, for Emerson, books are more of a record of the past, records that “Each age… must write… or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.” (Emerson 3) This, according to him, has to be done so that it could inspire the individual to recognize and compare the issues of the day. Nonetheless, by only reading books and “believing in their duty to accept the views… they wrote in books… instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm.” (Emerson 4) This then results to humans not thinking, but being simply readers, which Emerson disagrees with, as he believes that there are many valuable aspects of a person such as thought and an active soul. By taking ideas from books and not from personal, human motives, the scholar is not allowed to unite with the active soul. Education, for Emerson, as well as Locke, is not merely the transmission of ideas from one generation to another. “Books are the best of things, well used; abused among the worst”. (Emerson 4) If used properly and only to a certain extent, books can be helpful, but not a fundamental factor of learning.