Does exaggerating plastic’s presence in the classroom transform children’s relations with plastics?

Does exaggerating plastic’s presence in the classroom transform children’s relations with plastics? Hundreds of water bottles inundate the toddler room, and for the next few hours bottles and toddlers become acquainted with each other. As I wonder how plastic invites children to move with them, I notice how the “throwntogetherness” (Massey, 2005) of bodies and bottles seem to co-mingle as they bounce, shake, spin, and role in a friendly frolic.

As bottles come to rest in a small corner of the room the toddlers follow. Plastic bottles seem to gather the toddlers rather than toddlers gathering the plastic bottles. The role of protagonist seems fluid, shifting from child to bottle and back again, as children and plastic lay together. Their collective movements seem to meld together as bodies cover bottles and bottles cover bodies. Encounters with toddlers and bottles trouble the notion of plastics as objects of human inspiration by speculating on water bottles as lively, unexpected provocateurs in relations with children.

References

Massey, D. (2005). For space. London, UK: Sage

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