TAKING MY STUDENTS TO SEE THE MAYANS AND AZTECS BUT THEY TALK ME INTO STARING AT A BUNCH OF DEAD THINGS.
I. Essential question:
What is taxidermy,
and how does taxidermy enhance
your understanding of both the physical and meta
physical world?
II. Lesson Objective:
My students will make a scene. They will be awe-
filled and giddy. They will gallop in stupendous motion,
a herd of happy ponies. They will bounce up four flights
on one foot to pretend-lick dinosaur bones, rush
towards the ominous mosquito exhibit, and they will ask
for my phone. They will want to take a jumping selfie
one where they’re frozen in time, levitating over my multiple
attempts at a headcount. I will not be able to say no to their massive
bright and gleaming eyes when they ask,
just ten more minutes!
III. Objects/Materials Needed:
My students refer to the grizzly bear as “life-like”
and a “giant stuffed-animal.” Do I break the mirage,
tell them that these creatures were once as alive
as they will feel walking back with me to school?
Along the way, they will scream, cry, point towards a pigeon
with its head stomped in. Blood trickles from the bird’s eyes
every time it thrusts its broken neck towards the sky.
They will urge me to call 9-1-1.
IV: Check for Understanding:
Where do we go when we die?
About the Author: Kellie Diodato recently completed her MFA in poetry at Columbia University School of the Arts. She works as a Humanities educator for middle school students. Her writing can be found in Lifelines: The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Literary and Art Journal, Some Kind Of Opening, and The Pinch, among others.
Image Credit: “Taxidermied musk ox” (1876) Public domain image courtesy of the Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 