Colouring outside the lines

I knew it was only a matter of time before this little predicament would raise its ugly head.  The ‘Colour inside the lines’ argument has well and truly hit home. It kicked off in my kitchen last week in the middle of my junior infant’s homework when she was getting particularly frustrated about staying inside the lines.

 

When my daughter put on that uniform, I knew I was sending her into years of tradition in an educational system with a reputation of being one of the best in the world; one she must go through to be well educated. But I also knew that I was sending her into a world of rules and expectations, which if she is to succeed in being ‘good’ and ‘successful,’ she must conform to.

 

My daughter persevered, oblivious to my internal struggle with wanting to tell her to colour whatever way she wants and the knowledge that if she did, there would be no gold star or pupil of the week for her, ever. But it’s not her fault, and it’s not even her teacher’s or her school’s fault. It’s the system and society we have all grown up in and it starts with those five little words: ‘Don’t Colour Outside the Lines.’

 

Being in the creative industry and art education, I am highly aware of most people’s restrictions on their creative outlets. I’ve had students ranging from pre teens right up to their sixties who are completely paralysed unable to let go and create, to believe in their own abilities. And I’m convinced this is from years of the ‘Don’t Colour outside the Lines’ mentality.

 

It’s a conformity impressed on us from an early age, where we are encouraged and praised for staying within the confines of a drawing set out for us and in my opinion, gradually makes us lose that little spark of creativity and individualism we all have. It is a precursor for our whole lives, do what is expected of you, don’t be different, don’t stand out, be the same as everyone else. What kind of message are we sending our children?

 

In a time when our governments are spending huge amounts of money supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in order to kick start our economy and the world is applauding entrepreneurs who think outside the box and are different, why then can’t we start this mentality in our schools?

 

Let our kids be different.

 

Who cares if they colour outside of the lines, what’s the worst that could happen? That they might make a new picture, one that is different to everyone else’s, so what? By expecting children to stay inside the lines, we are stifling them creatively and it is our creativity which feeds our imagination and in turn our self belief. It is vitally important to retain that creativity and imagination so we can nurture the future leaders, artists and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

 

Let them stand out. Most importantly, let them know that’s it’s okay to be themselves, even if that means their picture ends up looking a whole lot different to what it was supposed to look like. Let them colour outside the lines and see where their new lines take them. It might just surprise us all.

 

Aisling Kearney Burke is a mum to two inquisitive and destructive Under 4’s from Galway, who divides her time between running her own business, Beechmount Art Studio and attempting to negotiate the minefield of parenthood.

 

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