The Kids are Alright, DEMETER Fragrance Library in the Classroom: Part 2

I recently read a transcript where a professor of biological sciences said that the problem with our sense of smell, or some of us thinking that we don’t have a very good sense of smell is that that we humans walk on two legs which allows our noses to be 5-6 feet in the air, however all the good smelling stuff is about 8-12 inches from the ground. This got me thinking that some of us are just out of practice, as far as our noses go. So considering kids are still a bit closer to the ground, and that many of them still play in the dirt, this makes them better candidates than most adults when it comes to olfaction. While I was with the kids in the classroom, my very loose intent was to make sure they got to exercise their noses, experience their sense of smell through nature, and begin to become more aware of their sense of smell in their daily life. 

Along with my very exacting arsenal of Demeter Fragrance Library, I brought in an apple, a tomato, some mint, a few lemons, and couple of other things with the hope that they would begin to notice that most fruit and plants that they encounter in the real world carry a scent. Most mornings, five noses at 8:30am would huddle close together to get a whiff, a touch, and even a taste. Not only did they want to smell the mint, but they wanted to eat it, making the intimate connection between smell and taste. Not only did they want to smell the earthworm, but they wanted to hold it. After a while, the kids wanted to know how the apple or tomato got inside the perfume bottle. Considering this is the last question I thought they would ask, I described that there were different ways to extract the oils/scent from a flower, plant, root, or fruit and this liquid eventually makes it into the perfume bottle, and they accepted this quite easily.

Without my lead, the kids began to smell notes inside notes, Theodore swore he could smell Coconut inside Demeter Play-doh, and he kept smelling it and repeating it several times. Kara smelled Green Delicious, and swore she smelled Strawberry too.  Hilary smelled the same Green Delicious, and said this smells like my mother’s hairspray, a little nod to functional fragrance, and thoughts of mama.  

I also brought in some jars of Play-doh, and a box of crayons so that they could smell the real stuff compared to the juice, Crayon and Play-doh. They were very emphatic that the juice and the fragrance didn’t smell exactly alike; they got it! Fragrance is an abstraction, woo hoo kindergarteners. I told them that smelling the real thing and smelling the perfume was sort of like having a real apple on the table in front of them and then drawing that same apple that’s on the table in front of them. They are similar, but not the same. 

Most days we started by smelling an earthworm, literally. My son and I searched our garden the day before, looking for an earthworm or two. I then would put them in their temporary Tupperware home, punch a few holes, and add a leaf for a snack, at my son's urging. After they gently handled the earthworm, we carefully placed him back in his temporary home. Then we sprayed Demeter Earthworm onto the blotter (the kids were always so excited about spraying the fragrances onto the blotters) so they can smell the difference or the sameness. Earthworm, has a wetness, and dampness to it; it smells of wet earth and rotting leaves-camphor-like, and it is so incredibly beautiful. Along with Dirt, and Honey the kids just couldn't get enough of it. Earthworm got some kids thinking that they smelled rat and poison, gotta love the city kids, and remember all perfumistas know that there is no such thing as a bad smell.  

Next up was Honey, it is a fascinating fragrance, mostly because it smells like the work of the honeybee. When the kids smelled Honey they smelled different kinds of flowers, sunshine, and powdery freshness. After we smelled Honey, I read the book, The Honeybee Man, by Lela Nargi and Krysten Brooker. It's about a sweet man who makes honey on top of his roof in Brooklyn, and the journey and work of a honeybees, a day in the life....

I saved Birthday Cake for the very end of class, and they immediately yelled out chocolate, vanilla, sweet, and yumm mmmmmm, others surprisingly yelled yuk. Then I noticed Maya. She had created a fan with her blotters and she was waving all six fragrances at once, under her nose. Exactly like photos I have seen of famous perfumers holding multiple blotters in one hand. She said, "See, I can smell all the fragrances at once."  Without knowing it, Maya immediately passed go and went directly to layering and blending. Now why didn't I think of that, here's to the future. Cheers, Demeter.

The Kids are Alright: DEMETER Fragrance Library in the Classroom: Part 1

I suppose I knew that going into a kindergarten class to wake up kids about their sense of smell would be a lot of fun, but I didn't expect that the kids were going to bring a heightened attention, thoughtfulness, and slight seriousness to the art of smelling. To my surprise, these 5 and 6 year-olds were fully engaged most days for 40 minutes. We worked in small groups twice a week over three weeks, and we mostly did blind smelling, meaning I had them guess what was on each blotter. The beautiful thing is I never directly asked the kids to tell me about memories or stories related to what they smelled, their reactions just naturally poured out of them.

The idea for going into the classroom came to me after I had listened to an art historian from Rotterdam on a webinar entitled, "Smell This" (pretty obscure, I know.) Listen to it here...http://www.v2.nl/events/test_lab_smell_this.  Anyway, the art historian spoke about a "youth" survey where the majority of kids said they would rather give up their sense of smell than give up their electronic devises. She then continued to state that luckily in the near future these kids won't have to make that kind of decision; scent will finally catch up to technology or vice versa, but in the meantime this put me in a bit of a spin, and I was going to do something about it. Right about the same time I met up with Carlos Huber, Arquiste Parfumeur, and I mentioned how important it was to get kids smelling, and how I wanted to bring essential oils into the classroom. He immediately thought of Demeter and how much fun it would be for the kids.

Even though I hadn't thought about Demeter in a while, I had very fond memories of visiting their boutique in the East Village in the late 90s. Demeter fragrances narrow in and capture singular notes/things like, Grass, Martini, Bubble Gum, or Snow. Christopher Brosius founded Demeter Fragrances in 1993; he has since left Demeter (sources tell me his departure was amicable) and continues building his work with his line CB I Hate Perfume. Demeter continues to grow and carry on as well, just take a look at their impressive on-line store. Weeks later when I connected with Demeter they immediately and most generously supplied purse size travel sprays for the entire class, and filled my very specific request for scents from their Fragrance Library collection: Dirt, Earthworm, Tomato, Golden Delicious, Honey, Play-Doh, Crayon, Birthday Cake.

The Kids are Alright

Jose picked up the blotter and remembered the day his family went on a hike through the hills and sand and arrived at the ocean, more exactly it was the day his mother taught him how to swim. He was holding the blotter tightly as he relived and shared this special moment of his life. Franco picked up his blotter and almost instantly recalled the time he played an electric guitar when he was little and how his feet on the earth made the sound even stronger. They were both smelling Demeter Dirt. Other kids had one word guttural reactions to what they smelled. Lucia said "green" as she smelled Dirt, and I have to agree there is a freshness and expansiveness about it. Dirt most certainly was the scent that brought forth all sorts of memories and ideas from the kids. It appears that kids are still thankfully connected to the earth.

At times the connection to smelling and taking action was immediate. After they smelled Crayon, the kids wanted to draw. Maybe there is something about scent as motivation, ya think.... Jose picked up his crayon and began to draw an ocean of earth.

More to come....stay tuned.

Listen to Christopher Brosius talk about Demeter here; his description of Dirt is awesome.

http://www.studio360.org/2006/oct/13/snow-in-a-bottle/