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| By Marie-France Boissonneault (Dallas Road) |
In the health class I have taught for the past two years, I
incorporated an assignment from one of my previous classes that explores themes
of embodiment through our five senses.
In writing through animal characters, I
have found this to be an ideal way to enable a deeper understanding of the
world through the experience of another’s whom we cannot truly grasp due to our
own limitations. I am always amazed at the imaginative ways that my students
describe the experience. It can be a difficult task given the criteria, but
some, like the first time I assigned it, really take to the challenge!
This past term, I came across a book in my middle school
library that illustrated the exercise beautifully when writing about colour.
This book proved to be a great tool to help some of the students that struggled
with the assignment. It is hard to conceptualise the world of another, whether
it is a being from our own species or a species with which our experience of
the world is so far removed from our own.
We all live intricate lives that have a unique unspoken understanding
to each that may cross our paths but they are only truly appreciated by
ourselves. The reasons we do things, the choices we make, the way we survive,
how we keep strong and smile into the next day… We can look upon another and
try to assume that we understand their struggles or their pain, their joys or
their sorrows, or even the reality that they mirror to the outside world, but no matter who we are there
is always a hidden truth.
It is fascinating to travel through the realms of other beings
by researching their experiences of the world and describing it to the best of my ability. As
well, it is a great writing exercise to challenge oneself to describe an understanding
outside the confines of the shared, and to inwardly conceptualise the journey
forbidden from using descriptors related to our senses in question…
