Crayons or Computers

"We want to color" was the statement my wife heard last week during the first week of school as she taught her first grade class. The students relished the opportunity to put a little crayon in their little hands and color the paper set before them. The crayon for children first came into being and was marketed in 1903 with 8 different colors presented. Today there are over 100 types of crayons in use including glow in the dark, glittering, and different smells to accompany the various colors. For more information on the history of crayola crayons, read http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcrayon.htm.

In contrast, the computer as we know it today has been a meteoric development since 1936 with advanced features continuing today and public consumption of the computers continuing to grow at an astounding rate. Unlike the crayon, which aside from the various types and sizes available remains the same since inception, the computer has evolved quickly and dramatically to what we see today with 160 gigabytes of storage space for a personal computer and software for virtually (no pun intended) any interest or activity including coloring. I smile as I remember my first computer with its 20 megabytes of memory!

Today we have computers in every classroom, labs in most hallways, and a staff of computer wizards to help those who are not. Computers have capabilities to create glorious works of art, enhance movies, supplement brochures, add pictures and graphics to letters, signs, posters, and video. The possibilities are only limited by the human spirit and the future holds an infinite amount of computer graphics beauty and art we can only imagine today. With a computer there is no mess, you cannot accidentally leave a computer in your pocket, you cannot break it in half, and it will not melt outside in the sun. If you make a mistake, you simply do not save your work, and it is not on permanent display for all to see around the room.

So why do the little first graders request to color with crayons? In our modern age of electronic gizmos, it does not make sense that children would want to experience something as primitive as a crayon. You cannot plug it in, it does not beep, buzz, play music, show videos, display photographs, show maps, blog, email, or even play solitaire. A crayon can really only do one thing, and that is color in the way you want it to color. While several crayons can produce different colors, the possibilities of colors are somewhat limited and the human hand can only work so fast and so well. Besides, once it is on paper, there is no erasing the work.

Yet for all its lack of refinement and wizardry, the crayon continues to make its dramatic mark upon elementary aged children, both at home and in the classroom. Crayons do not require a server system, a technician, electricity, a keyboard, a mouse, a screen, and are much less expensive than a computer. The opportunity to hold a crayon in hand and work diligently to stay within the lines and choose different colors and bear down or color lightly or freely change the figures on the paper or randomly create your own picture is the opportunity to express yourself and tactilely reproduce what the mind has conceived. It is classic joy to color, to paint the world before you, to use your hands to improve that which is seen, to express your emotions with a crayon, and all without the use of a machine.

"Which is the winner, the crayon or the computer?" I ask myself as I type this blog on my expensive laptop and smile when I hear about the sheer pleasure the 1st graders are receiving when they are allowed to color at the end of day. Computers are here to stay, but, ironically, and antithetically, so are crayons!