26-27
ALTERNATIVES TO PICTURES AS DISCUSSION STARTERS:
Usually key words, together with drawings or photographs, are used to spark
discussions. But songs, role plays, or objects can also be used. Make sure that
what you use is something familiar that can lead to eye-opening discussions in
many directions.
We have seen a group leader
start a lively discussion by
passing around a bottle of
Coca-Cola and asking, “What
does this mean to you?” The
people’s first reaction is to
quote the advertisements:
“The drink that refreshes!”
“The real thing!”
“Things go better with Coke!
“But do they really go better?” asks the group leader.
And so the discussion begins. It may range from looking at ‘junk foods’ as a cause
of malnutrition, tooth decay, stomach ulcers, and heart disease, to exploring how
advertising influences people’s thinking and idealizes foreign values. Depending on
the sophistication of the group, they may also discuss the role of huge international
corporations in the national and world-wide power structures.
In the Central American country where the discussion about ‘Coke’ was held,
some persons were aware that several union organizers had recently been shot
to death in a Coca-Cola bottling plant. They had been trying to get fairer working
conditions
The group concluded that things might go better without Coke.
Even a Toothbrush can serve as a discussion starter to help people look at things
in new ways:
Similar consciousness-raising dialogues can be sparked by such things as baby
bottles, cans of infant formula, plastic-wrapped ‘junk food’, or packages of refined
sugar or flour. On page 15-7, we show how ears of native and hybrid maize can be
used to start a discussion.