Dark Crayons and Drab Drawings


   
       Here is another example of the often very serious consequences that befall a child as a result of being enmeshed in a role from which
he/she cannot extracate himself/herself. The story concerns a little boy in a fourth grade classroom comprised of about forty pupils. Several
times each week all the children were encouraged to draw pictures with the crayons that the teacher provided. And after each picture-
drawing session the boy would hand in a drawing that invariably was composed exclusively of dark, drab colors. All of this little boy’s
drawings were consistently limited to blacks, grays, dark greens, and other very drab shades. And after several months of such drawings
the teacher began to become worried. She finally decided to take a large number of the boy’s drawings to the school psychologist.
       A few days later the psychologist called the child into his office and simply asked him why he drew all these dark, drab pictures. The
child’s response was that he really didn’t have any choice in the matter. He didn’t want to draw such dreary pictures. But the teacher
always started the crayon box at the front of the room. And by the time the crayon box got back to him in the final seat of the rear row, the
only crayons left were the blacks, the grays, the dark greens, the browns, and other less than “happy” colors.
       The moral to this story is that society often creates pathology as a result of the situations in which it places people. Some situations
are especially conducive to pathology whereas others are conducive to health, happiness and adjustment. In essence, boys with high
inborn introversion and fearfulness are often required to adapt to situations which simply do not “fit” these native attributes. And because
they are forced to remain in these situations they simply do not thrive; and indeed they regress as per the “wishbone effect” discussed
earlier. Were society to place these boys in school situations that comfortably fit their native temperaments, they would no longer be
bullied, hazed, harassed or belittled for inborn attributes over which they have no control or choice. And they would begin to thrive.