Coloring Outside the Lines

How important is it, really, to color inside the lines?

I mean, I get wanting to teach kids neatness and to take pride in their work, but do we take it too far sometimes?

Let me just make it very clear right now that I am not writing this to judge parents/teachers/babysitters/etc who may emphasize coloring in the lines. That's just not what I'm doing.

To give a little background for this post, I participate in a reading program at a nearby school. (Names and locations will not be mentioned, for privacy's sake.) Today, I was with a young child who was coloring a picture of the American flag for Veteran's Day, when he suddenly remarked, "I try my best, y'know. I really really try and do my best but I keep messing up!" 

I had no idea what he was talking about, because his coloring was the neatest I'd ever seen from someone his age.

"What do you mean?" I asked, and he said, "Even though I try and try, I always mess up and get some color outside the lines. I just keep messing up!" He sighed and slumped over the table. "I just don't even try anymore. S'not worth it." He started mumbling to himself about how at home, he was scolded or punished for getting crayon outside the lines.

I was shocked, and slightly heartbroken.

Mind you, he could have been exaggerating a bit, but I've never seen a child look so defeated as he mumbled, "I don't practice coloring at home." Then, when his hand slipped and he got some red in the white section of the flag, his facial expression was completely resigned. "Hey," I said, "It's okay to color outside the lines sometimes! Everyone does at some point!" But we still ended up just trying to "fix it". 

Why?

What's so important about coloring inside the lines on a coloring sheet that it warrants a scolding if not carried out? 

Are these wonderful works of kids going to be viewed by famous art critics? Is Deborah Solomon going to look at them and say, "Hmm, this would have been perfect if it hadn't been for this one tiny spot where it got outside the lines." 

I'm asking these questions very seriously, because I honestly want to know. What is it exactly that is so important about staying precisely in the lines of a kid's coloring page the whole time?

Why do we sometimes look at a kid's drawing and say, "No, sweetie. The sky isn't green. Here, have a blue crayon"? (I'm guilty of this, I've done it before, and unfortunately hindsight is 20/20.) Mind you, I'm not talking about times when the kid just scribbles something quickly because they don't want to do it, and because they don't really care. No, I'm talking about when the child works for a long time on their coloring page and is proud of it, even if Snow White's hair is now fluorescent pink.

And I know that the number of people who look at these drawings and say, "Good job! I really like the colors!" probably outweighs the number of people who make negative comments, I really do.

Still, I know both from my own experience and the experiences of others that kids tend to remember a lot more of the negative stuff than the positive stuff. Kids are resilient, creative, wide-eyed wonders of God. If they want to go outside the lines a little bit and make the blueberries in the picture into grapes, I say let 'em! When they're this young, is it really appropriate to scold them for "messy" pictures? Is it okay to look at the purple lines going every which way and say, "You're wasting paper"? 

Sorry, I didn't mean to rant. 

Well, maybe I did just a little. 

But maybe if you'd seen how discouraged that little one was today, you might want to rant a little bit too.