In listening to the Radiolab episode “A Word Without Words,” I was intrigued by the story of the man who lived 27 years without any concept or use of language. Once he learned to sign, he felt his world take shape. He was finally able to connect his visual and physical perceptions of reality with an inner dialogue, which gave the world significance. He began to form ideas.
The power of words in shaping perception is fascinating. It speaks to the power of stories – that an idea or a memory doesn’t exist until we can put it into a language. Margaret Atwood has a beautiful quote about this concept:
“When you are in the middle of a story it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It’s only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else.”
Radiolab’s episode, “Colors,” also speaks to words’ ability to shape perception. There’s no evidence to suggest that humans could see the color blue before 4,500 years ago. Homer uses many colors in The Odyssey, but never blue. He says the sea is “wine-dark.” When analyzing ancient Icelandic, Hindu, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew texts, the color blue isn’t mentioned. And since the sky is one of the only natural occurrences of blue, it’s natural that no one came up with a word for it. It just wasn’t necessary. So while people could see the color, they didn’t notice it because they didn’t have the right word.
Words shape our realities on a primal level, which means learning happens through the writing process. This makes a strong case for teaching persuasive writing over informative – students discover ideas through writing, provided they’re interested in their topic.