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Colouring within the lines

by Beverley Paine, 2023

Remembering back to my early years as a home educating mumma I was convinced my role was to get my kids to colour within the lines, to learn the lines, memorise and recite them, reproduce them with accuracy, legibility and clarity, to conform, fit in, belong and that in time, by standing on the shoulder's of those that had gone before, they too would become giants, successful in their own right.

But my kids had other ideas. They challenged my perception and understanding of education every single day. They did this by resisting, with stubborness, with creativity and humour, with a fierce independent spirit.

And today, when I'm with my grandkids, I feel echoes of my old need to steer these awesome young people and then remind myself that letting them learn and colour outside the lines go didn't harm my kids, their parents, it's what they needed.

Text in image reads: When you're a kid, you color with reckless abandon. You color outside the lines. You color however you feel. Blue elephants, purple trees, red hearts, green oceans -- it's all good. As you get older, though, everyone tells you to stay inside the lines, to color everything just like you see it. You end up painting by numbers -- where you actually paint or whether you write or sing or dance or act or direct. I think you should create what you feel. Create outside the lines. I want to watch green oceans and red bears. I'd love to listen to purple trees. And I long to read blue elephants."

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