Chapter 21

Creating an Adult Coloring Teaching Lesson

I shared about creating an adult coloring book group in an earlier part of this book. I want to devote this chapter to how teachers can create a lesson plan that includes adult coloring. My hope is that a teacher or professor will find this helpful for engaging their students.

Many of my friends have been schoolteachers. A few openly share how hard it is to keep the children interested in course subjects. One of my friends was working in an inner-city high school. He told me that many of the students didn’t stay focused on the daily tasks. He went as far to say that he called a few of the parents who would not intervene. He was stuck trying to come up with an idea on how to make learning fun.

I spoke about how I found creating rap therapy one of the best assets in my work. It helped me connect with the inner city children I worked with. Many had been through the foster care system. In the beginning, the differences between us were clear. I had come from a middle class background and was dressed quite conservatively. They were mostly from very poor neighborhoods and had seen struggles no youth should be exposed to.

During those days, I found rap therapy as a tool to connect us. When the music and art of spoken word came out, we looked past our differences. Together, we found a common bond through our mutual love of hip hop music. It took time but the lessons grew stronger and more positive. Over a few months, many heavy topics were open for discussion. I saw kids rap and write poetry about losing parents to suicide, having a mom go to jail, seeing a loved one murdered in cold blood, dealing with barely having enough food to eat, and coping with mental and physical abuse.

These topics were real and often more than I knew how to handle. I was a beginning social worker and these are the real truths you cannot learn about in school. How do you help a twelve-year-old who was beaten, lost their parents, and has been kicked out of several homes and schools? What can you say to them to help them have hope? Would I be wrong to teach them that the future could be bright? Would it be a lie to offer them a future that may be less painful than their past?

I contemplated these deep psychological lessons. I was new in my training and doing the best I could. I was also working in a mental hospital that affected my own emotions. Just a few years before, I was locked in a psychiatric hospital several times. I was the patient locked in for a month and having to undergo the same therapies. Could I handle now being a professional and trying to help other young people in situations similar to what mine had been?

I worked with my rap therapy group and it was wonderful. We were creating great talks, music, and songs about their lives. I was trying to show them that expression and feelings are healthy. They became less embarrassed by their truths as they watched everyone becoming open. We created a safe space to be creative and express our thoughts. As a leader, I found my role was to slowly and calmly help them find their own truth. I could not take away the blistering pains they battled as children. I could only try to help them find the tools to change and reshape their futures.

This all is part of a teacher creating a coloring lesson. My first tip is to copy sheets for students to color. It may be possible to find ones that are interesting and age-appropriate. This may include animals, nature scenes, or even historical figures. When you hand out the sheets it may be helpful to include a few crayons for each student. The cost of crayons is so low that you could give each one a few and not spend a large amount of money. You may even have crayons in your classroom that can be used for this lesson.

The second step is to explain why you are doing a coloring lesson. This may benefit from you explaining why art and creativity are important. You may share a few examples of historical figures that created art.

This will help show students that many historical figures found being creative a way to open up. You may also speak about how as humans we have a need to be inspired. There are many examples of how creativity has led to innovation. We can thank Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison for being deep thinkers. Their ideas helped to change the world we live in. As a teacher, you can share how you also find creativity as a way to move forward.

A part of your lesson should be to teach the class that they don’t have to resort to negative ways of handling their emotions. One large part of the addiction problem is that many children feel hurt. They then seek escape and pleasure through harmful addictions. It may be valuable to remember a few of the wonderful talents we lost too early from overdoses. A few names on the long list include Chris Farley, Jon Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland, Heath Ledger, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. These terrific talents all left our world way too soon. This will show the students that turning to destructive addictions are a sure way to lose the promise we hold inside.

When the kids begin coloring, you may ask them to think about their emotions. Are they feeling any different during the coloring? Does it help them to relax or slow down their thoughts? You can survey them and ask for a show of hands to the following questions:

Please raise your hand if you felt coloring helped you to feel less anxious.

Please raise your hand if coloring felt better than when learning academic subjects.

If you think coloring could be a fun and healthy daily activity, please raise your hand.

You may see many students with hands raised that are not usually engaging with the class. I was shocked to find some of the most difficult patients interacting during my rap therapy sessions. Even those who were labeled as behavioral problems would often become the most engaged participants during my work. What I found was that some youth who were thought to be causing problems were actually suffering from severe emotional pain. They had bottled up years of troubles. A few admitted that they were so disruptive because they were angry at their families. They felt that being rude and attention-seeking was the way to basically tell authorities to “fuck off.”

The young people I worked with hated authority and were sick of structured activities. It became obvious that being the class troublemaker was the way to seek revenge for their problems. I would find that many wanted to change. They were hurting so deeply that their tough exterior was a cover for severe insecurities. A few said that no other therapist had ever found a way to engage with them on their level. It became easy to see that these types of groups helped make positive changes. I watched as some began to do better outside the group. They were able to be happy and let go of some of the heavy emotional baggage. It was wonderful to watch them interact better with other children and the staff of the hospital.

Do you as a teacher have kids that come across as aggressive? Are you having difficulty teaching the coursework while some are unfriendly, attention-seeking, and hostile? My belief is that doing a coloring class will change the dynamic of the group. You are showing that a non-traditional tool actually may have value. It is also a way to help the students connect with each other.

You may be teaching a future policeman or policewoman in your class. What if they learned to love and respect all people? You may have a troubled youth with the potential to be a school shooter, ISIS terrorist, or dangerous criminal. What would happen if we reached them young enough to help change the course of their future? What would happen if they learned to release their emotions in a positive way? Would you be able to stop the next generation of attacks from happening by improving the mind of a troubled youth? Could we make our society one where love and peace prevail?

These questions are not going to be solidified by a study or anything else today. They are going to be something I will think deeply about. I encourage all of us to look at what is happening around us. If you want to create a brighter future, we have to start helping with problems before they have reached the peak of anger. I have seen some pretty troubled kids turn around their lives.

I believe my work has helped many to avoid some painful outcomes. We need more of this work to shatter the hate that is held deep within many of our minds. We cannot be a society that does not have the power to change. Recent tragic events remind us, again, of all the reasons to change our thinking. We owe it to future generations to create openness and outlets that help us heal. If we do not, these sad occurrences will leave us in a world of chaos. It is not too late to start improving all of our minds.