One thing that I’ve noticed over the years in parents and teachers alike is that many of them are obsessed with the color of things. For example, a crooked heart with an extra hump drawn by a three year old has to be colored red, just like an oval sun with triangles protruding from all sides has to be colored yellow.

I just don’t understand the fixation of making sure every blade of grass drawn inside the walls of a pre-k has to be green. Why are we forcing all our children to draw the same, color the same, paint the same, walk the same, talk the same, dress the same and act the same? OK, maybe I went overboard a bit because my beef is with the coloring, but this “philosophy” permeates many other aspects of both education and child development.

A child, through life experience, will grow to the knowledge of the colors of nature, it is all around them. They step outside to their jungle gym and are able to see that the grass is green or sometimes brown, that the sky is blue and sometimes black and that the sun is yellow or even orange on any given day.

Why do we need to force them to represent what is obvious? Maybe we think that their parents aren’t too sure themselves about the color of certain natural wonders, so we make sure their kids get it right a school then take their picture home to their parents so that they can learn too. Better yet, maybe we’re afraid that if all the pre-schoolers in the world painted their sun green or there Valentine’s heart blue, then the sun really would turn green and all the hearts in the world would begin to burst out in different shades of blue.

We wonder why our children lack creativity and why they begin rebelling at an earlier and earlier age. Could it be that it is because we stifle that creativity with our colorful demands and that we ourselves seed this rebellion with our expectations of uniform skies?

You can live in conformity, but I’ll take a four year old’s purple sky any day.

Comments
on Jun 02, 2006
Not all parents are obsessive about child creativity.  We never were.  I agree life will teach them the colors of the rainbow, so if they want to add a gold or silver stripe to theirs, it will not hurt anything.
on Jun 02, 2006
Dr. Guy
Not all parents are obsessive about child creativity.

Sorry if I came across like I was accusing every teacher or parent (or even the majority for that matter) of stifling kids creativity. I know there are some great parents out there (like you) who do their best to create and nurture a creative learning environment for the children.
it will not hurt anything.

Right on.


on Jun 02, 2006
terrific article, forcing our kids into some kind of clone mold just cannot be a good thing, let them explore their imaginations.
on Jun 03, 2006
Moderateman
terrific article

Thanks.
forcing our kids into some kind of clone mold just cannot be a good thing

I agree, but there are some who would want it that way. Clones are easier to control and manipulate, that which is not uniform must be killed or assimilated.


on Jun 03, 2006
#4 by AvantiTexan
Sat, June 03, 2006 2:22 PM


that which is not uniform must be killed or assimilated.


sounds like a star trek the next generation episode, about the BORG, resistance is futile , you will be assimilated.
on Jun 03, 2006
The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man
I'm paintin' flowers he said
She said... It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

Well the teacher said.. You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me.....

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

The teacher put him in a corner
She said.. It's for your own good..
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And are responding like you should
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin'
She said...Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.


--Harry Chapin, "Flowers are Red"
on Jun 04, 2006
Gid
Thanks for sharing the poem, it really touched me.

But that little boy painted flowersIn neat rows of green and redAnd when the teacher asked him whyThis is what he said.. and he saidFlowers are red, green leaves are greenThere's no need to see flowers any other wayThan the way they always have been seen.

This is my fear. When children are trained to think inside a box, it is very hard to break them out of that confinement.