The Odd Life of Timothy Green is not just a film about a boy’s life. It’s also about the big ‘why?’ questions that don’t always have easy answers – like
- Why is life sometimes difficult?
- Why can’t we all live forever?
- Why do we have the cycle of the seasons?
- and the big one—Why are we here?
These questions are what we call ‘philosophical’ questions. Philosophy is a way of investigating and making sense of the world around us through questions and thought.
Watching The Odd Life of Timothy Green won’t give you the answers to these questions, but it will help you explore your own thoughts on them.
One way of working out what you think about these big questions is through poetry. Writing poems can help you focus your mind on these issues.
Activity
You are going to write a philosophical poem about the images from the film.
- Choose one of the images above as the visual stimulus for your poem.
- Consider the image in silence for 1 minute.
- Write a statement or sentence about the image that answers the following questions. Answer each question on a new line:
- What can you see?
- Is there anything about the image that does not make sense to you?
- What is the image about?
- Why is this image important?
- Share your poem with a partner, or the people in your group.
- Answer any questions that they have for you.
- Ask them how they feel about the poem.
- Do they see the image differently?
- What does the poem mean to each person in the group?
- Does your poem shed any new light on the people or objects of the photo?
- Does it answer any of the ‘big’ questions about life?
Now listen to the other children in the group as they share their poems. Be ready with some open-ended questions that will generate discussion.
