November 11, 2018. Madison, Mississippi. Coloring.

On Friday at Grandparents' Day, I opened my mouth and inserted my foot. I should have known better but I was so surprised at what I was seeing that I spoke out loud. Fortunately the teacher was not near me. Molly is in 5th grade. Her teacher is Mrs. Brown. They are just completing a section on the First World War. Clearly the teacher has done a good job. Molly knows a lot about the war, even to the major players on both sides of the battle. The students made a model of a deep ditches the soldiers stayed in order to not be shot. The walls in the classroom are covered with other projects made by students. Molly took me to her desk, which was small. On the desk was a three ring binder of the First World War in which Molly showed me the pages she had written about. And she showed me pictures of people, who she named. She described the different soldiers and the officers and the generals. I was impressed. I asked how she got the pictures. She told me she colored them all. Page after page, I looked at these drawings and was appalled that in the 5th grade Molly was coloring. That was what I said. Just then, Linda came over and asked what I had said. She disagreed with me. She thought the pages in Molly's books were beautiful and reinforced everything Molly had been taught in class. My position is that coloring is mindless. A piece of paper given to a child to color means that the teacher has nothing else for them to do. When young, children are helped by controlling their fingers but that is all it does. At lunch today, Christina also defended the practice. Mary Frances said that when she paints, first she draws. Then she colors in the shape. I must ask more people . Perhaps I am out of date. Mrs. Brown clearly brought the war home to the students and they learned a lot so I may be wrong about coloring. I even read last year that adults can now purchase coloring books. I was horrified. Perhaps if I had been better at coloring within the lines I would have had better handwriting. I never mastered the art which is perhaps I think coloring is ridiculous. Next time I will keep my mouth closed and only tell Molly how wonderful those pages were. Or maybe not.