A simple piece of white copy paper.  In itself, not so remarkable, but in the eyes of a child it can be just about anything.  In education, I believe we’re trying to get away from paper as much as we can, giving children Chrome Books to do their work instead of writing things down, testing them on computers instead of using pencil and paper.  As like many of you, I understand that killing trees for paper is not a good thing and that recycling is a necessity, however, I wonder if in the process we’re taking away a source of creativity for children.

As an example, due to the weather, our students have been stuck inside for weeks and teachers have been doing their best to come up with things to keep students, especially the younger ones, occupied.  When these teachers were small children themselves, like my own children, videos kept them occupied and sometimes I think we’re in this mindset that videos can become babysitters.  But what I’ve discovering is that kids get bored with something they can’t interact with and so videos only last so long before restlessness sets in again.

In order to allow students to get in some movement we then employ activity videos like GoNoodle where students imitate the movements they see on the screen.  For some kids this works pretty well, but again, they’re not really creating anything, they’re copying someone else’s creativity and so even this doesn’t appeal to kids.  And when there’s a ratio of adults to children that would scare away most adults,  you want something that will keep them busy and engaged for a longer period of time.  For that, I suggest the humble piece of white paper.

Having a stack of this paper with some scissors, glue, colored pencils and markers allows kids to be creative and keeps them busy.  It’s amazing to watch.  That white paper can turn into a mini work of art or a card for someone.  It can be cut to make snowflakes and glued together to make designs and pictures.  It can be folded to make airplanes and games.  It can be crumpled up to become a ball to shoot baskets into the trash can.  Kids crave doing this kind of work with their hands.  Several years ago I had a group of kids complain to me that taking tests on a computer was boring because all you do is click on things and they would rather fill in the circle on paper.  There’s something satisfying about drawing and filling in shapes that a computer will never fulfill.

Now I totally get that this can be a waste of paper and as a teacher who needs to begin their lesson after recess, I know it takes longer to clean up than tapping on an iPad or laptop to stop a video, but I often wonder about the possible benefits to a child’s mind and psyche when they can relax and create. It’s a little ironic actually, that a generation ago, paper and colored pencils were boring and all they wanted to do was watch videos but now kids want to color again.  Even adults are coloring now as a form of relaxation therapy.  What does that say about us as humans?

Going back thousands of years, people have found the need to draw things and to use color in their drawings.  You have to wonder about the first person to decide to crush berries or something to create color for his or her artwork.  It’s like whoever decided it would be cool to pound a rhythm on a log or put small holes in a bone and blow through it to create music.  It’s that innate need for humans to create art using their hands and bodies that we can’t stop.  Even if we take away their paper.