Dog Of A Different Color

For the most part, when I was a child, I enjoyed school. But not until the later years, as in junior high and beyond.


For kindergarten through sixth grade, I hated school. I hated homework, I hated having to sit still and getting yelled at for talking, I hated walking in lines all the time, etc. And I especially hated the fact that I really didn't understand math, and the red slashes on my returned papers did nothing to help me.


But, there are two memories from Kindergarten that still specifically stand out for me. The first was when our teacher instructed us to color a flower. I like green. Green is my favorite color. So, I colored the entire flower green. I thought it was beautiful. Not so for my teacher: she held it up to the entire class and used it as an example of how not to color a flower, and told me I was lazy for coloring the entire flower green and not picking out a seperate flower for the petals. I still remember the shame and embarassment.


The second incident occurred when we were coloring pictures of Mickey Mouse's face. I used black crayon and made swoops and swirls while coloring it in. I thought his face looked unique and "cool". Not so for the teacher: she held it up and showed the class how my picture was "ruined" because I didn't color in one direction.


Since the Mermaid started homeschooling, I've noticed that she likes to pick one color, her favorite color at the time, and stick with it for the entire picture. At first, that really bothered me. Why doesn't she choose seperate colors? But I remembered what happened to me and didn't criticise: just gently asked her why. Her reason was the same as mine: "I just like purple/pink/orange, etc." and that was that. Lately, she's been coloring one object multiple colors, none of them realistic. She thinks her paintings are beautiful. I do too.


This week the Mermaid is learning about dogs and so I made some paper bag dog puppets with the girls. The Guppy painted hers all black. The Mermaid got to work, choosing colors like green and red and blue, and painting in all different directions. Our family friend was over our house and immediately asked the Mermaid why she wasn't painting the dog brown, or black, or another color that dogs are. She pondered the question for a moment, then told our friend "I don't want my dog to be like other dogs. My dog is beutiful, and he likes being red and blue and green". And that was that.


Her dog was beautiful. And so is my daughter, for being so creative and seeing the world in a different way than the adults that surround her.

Dog Of A Different Color