teach-in game

The non-human roles (green cards):

a squirrel from Elizabeth's site-sit

a baboon from the troop observed by Barbara Smuts

Max, Peter Singer's dog in "The Lives of Animals"

a Pachysandra plant in Morris Woods

a piece of Wissahickon Schist, now part of a Bryn Mawr College building

The human roles (orange cards):

Winona LaDuke

Henry David Thoreau

Peter Singer

David Bohm

Terry Tempest Williams

The blue cards looked something like this:

Each group included a red, a green, and a blue cardholder. The non-human character got to speak first.

I did not get a full record of who was in each group, but here are some of the memorable moments:

A baboon fell into the river and was in difficulties. The author in the group (Peter Singer) preferred to wax poetic than to rescue the baboon. The class member playing herself pointed out that the baboon could not appreciate poetry.

Squirrel: Elizabeth is an intruder in my house: Attack!

class member: do you not like humans?

David Bohm: intruding my house Elizabth is

Max the dog: I have worth but YOU do not get to decide what that worth is.

Thoreau: Learn to live on your own, dog. Undomesticate yourself. Then you will learn your true worth.

Zoe: I didn't know dogs can talk; and wild, you, dog, will not be able to survive

Wissahickon Schist: I am older than you by 400,000 years!

Terry Tempest Williams: ah but the Universe has existed much longer than that, and will go much longer after you, stone, are gone

Rochelle: Yeah, you're older than me, but not as old as the universe. But we're all made up of the same stuff, so we're really all the same age.

Pachysandra: [crawls around on the floor, entwining Winona LaDuke legs]

[can't remember LaDuke's comment]

Anne: there is some disagreement about what constitutes an invasive species...

If anyone can fill in the blanks, and supply your name if missing, please comment and I will incorporate here for the archive!