Only one

Sixteen years ago when I was teaching kids to read and deciding if education was my life’s calling, an essay contest announcement crossed my desk. I don’t recall who was sponsoring the contest but the theme has become embedded in who I am and how I think of myself.
It was a deceptively simple idea. Imagine all of your senses get “stuck” on one input each–you can only hear one sound, see one thing, touch one surface, taste one flavor, smell one scent. What would each of these be and why?
Most of the fourth graders in my classroom wanted to taste pizza “because it is good” and to see TV “because it is fun.” They were sweetly naive. Not a lot of effort went into their essays, but they wrote and submitted them anyway.
Why not have a think about it yourself and leave a comment? I’ll share mine (the same five that I wrote out so many years ago) in the comments on Monday.