Adding color to a black and white world
It’s September! Growing up in the Northeast, I associate September with autumn leaves, apple picking, and school starting. And every year I think of this story:
The little boy came into school, and the teacher showed him where to sit. She taught him where to put his bag, and how to keep still when she spoke. She reminded him that grass is always green, or maybe brown, but never pink or blue. For five years he learned where to sit, how to listen, when to write, and what colors to use. The little boy grew up.
One September the boy (who was no longer so little) walked into a new classroom. The teacher, he had heard, was crazy. He put his bag in the cubby space, sat down at his desk with his feet forward, and arranged his pencils in their box. The teacher came into the room.
“Today we are drawing flowers,” she said. The class got to work, taking out paper and crayons, each drawing a row of perfect flowers. The teacher walked around, watching, encouraging. She stopped by the boy’s desk - “you haven’t begun yet. Are you still thinking about your flowers?” The boy shook his head.
“I have a question,” he said softly. The teacher nodded. “What color should my flower be?” The teacher smiled. “Whatever color you want,” she said. “But,” asked the boy, “which color is right?”
September 5th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Marli, great story! At the the end, the teacher should have handed the boy a copy of Peter H. Reynolds’ book “Ish”! Fits perfectly with the little flower story you shared here.
I’ve often done an activity with students asking them to draw the same thing: a flower. If they ask what type of flower, etc… I just say “The only instructions are to draw a flower.” Afterwards I either post the flower drawings up so all the students can see them, like a gallery, or I gather the students in a circle on the carpet, with their flower drawings, so all can see. I have students look around at all the different flowers. Everyone completed the same “assignment”, followed the same instructions, yet every flower was different… a different type, different colors, different styles… yet each is as “right” as the next. What’s great is that this activity works well with students at any grade level - and an effective way of both opening up discussions about creativity, as well as individual differences.
We’re thinking of using this activity, along Peter’s book “Ish”, to launch our first grade classroom guidance program this year.
I’d love to hear about activities of that nature that other members might use with students.
September 6th, 2007 at 6:51 am
Sounds great - and could lead into any number of class discussions, from science (real flowers, all the different kinds and why they grow in their specific forms), to how different people and opinions can be, while all being “right.”
September 6th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Exactly! We used to do the very same activity with kindergarten students for a lesson on individual differences - illustrating that very thing… that people and opinions and personal preferences can all be different, while all still being “right”.