These images are diagrams some students of mine made as they thought about their toothbrushes. It became clear that a plastic toothbrush exists in conjunction with many other supports in our culture. Such a mundane object could not have existed in this form at a time when roads, transportation, factories and dental hygiene were not so efficient. A toothbrush is a simple object, but it is part of a very sophisticated system.
About 25 students thought about toothbrushes and items appearing in the toothbrush world matrix ranged from nuclear war, war with China, zombies, weightless toothbrushing in space, and loneliness if teeth are not acceptably clean.
Hi Georgina,
ReplyDeleteI loved this experiment and the drawings your students made. I wondered about the concept of toothbrush and how it gathers or who / what kind of community or group does it make. I don't know if the associated objects constitute a gathering, I think they're more like accouterments (sp?). I also thought of the lesson in its entirety and how the toothbrush in that sense, has served to create a community. We might ask ourselves as well, what came first, the toothbrush or the ADA? How about that, if the ADA came first, then you could say a gathering created a thing. Keep brushing.
Mary