Red is Not a Color
I was at an event with my 8-year old son yesterday, a group of about 12 to 15 kids and their parents. As an icebreaker the question was posed, “What’s your favorite color?” Each parent-child pair answered, child first, then parent.
Of course, the children were dutiful: “My favorite color is red.” “My favorite colors are purple and black.” And, the parents likewise, “white”, “fuschia”, “royal blue”…and so on.
Egads, I thought! Are we teaching our children to be numb to the world!??!
Red is not a color! Describe red to me?
Or, for certain, it’s not a color you can love! How is that something that stirs your emotions?!
Let me describe colors you can love: the deep red of cherries, the aquamarine of the ocean, the orange as the sun falls below the horizon, the green of freshly cut grass, the dark blue of a lake in the night, the silver-gray-metal of an overcast day, the nostalgic yellow-orange-brown of fallen leaves in the autumn, the bright white of fresh snow…
I want my children, and all children, to feel the world. Colors are visual, so I want them to see the color, and I want those colors to stir emotions within their heart.
What is my favorite color? It’s the feeling I get when I see the rich color of green leaves against the blue sky on a sunny summer day when there isn’t a cloud in the sky.
But that’s two colors!
Jacob
19 Apr 10 at 8:56 am
Red is not a color because it belongs to Stanfurd – and everyone at UC Berkeley would agree.
Jenn
27 Apr 10 at 7:53 am
[...] comments Following up on my assertion that red is not a color, I wanted to share with you the xkcd color [...]
More on Color at Scott Porad
6 May 10 at 8:48 am