Social Commentary of Coloring Books

I know a few of my fellow amconners are in French 231, but I thought I would introduce this to our class in general as a topic that links back to our first semester. The first topic we discussed in our class was coloring books, and the difference between American ones and French ones. There are some pictures for you at the bottom (due to technical difficulties). On the left you see two pages, one of which is colored already, the other which has an outline of the same pictures. The right is completely black and white.  In France, a child who decides to start coloring is expected to color just like the images on the right. They are taught to follow rules early on. It coincided with a general French attitude on childrearing, where children learn manners and self-discipline early on so that during adolescence they may try out freedom. In America, we have the opposite. When a child is young they may color as they want. They can scribble and scratch with a crayon and the parent will reply with "Oh, how beautiful!". Then when the teenage years come around, all of a sudden there are restrictions, causing strife and this inherent need to rebel.
When I discussed freedom in my final paper of 101, I argued that freedom is the ability to choose to become the best version of yourself. This is an American definition of freedom, and here we see it. This child is conditioned when young to do as he or she pleases by not having a guide to color by. (According to my French book,) A child can do or say just about anything and they are granted with attention and praise. In this time of their life they already make choices; they are simple, small choices, but they are still free to choose. And through smaller choices we prepare ourselves to make the bigger choices that form ourselves. As a dense fact, these coloring books suggest much more than just basic knowledge of color. We want our children to acknowledge these values from the very getgo.

French Coloring Book

American Coloring Book