hwango

“Okay class, that should be enough time. I’m going to come around and see how all of you did.”

A few children put down their crayons and wait, but most keep going – layering on more waxy color to try to make the sky even more blue, adding a few fanciful apples to the trees, or perhaps hastily squeezing in another cow. Simon carefully adds a few more spots to the leopard hiding under the tractor.

The teacher murmurs various noncommittal encouraging things to each child as she passes them, gradually making her way towards Simon’s desk. Eventually, she reaches him, and is quiet for a long moment. Then she sighs.

“Simon, I’m…I’m not sure you really understood the assignment.”

Simon doesn’t have a reply for this.

“You were supposed to draw a picture of the farm we visited on our field trip.”

Simon looks around the room at the pictures his fellow classmates have drawn. They are full of blobby black and white things that were probably supposed to be cows, lollipop-shaped trees with chocolate brown trunks, and crazily-smiling stick figure farmers, all rendered with garish primary colors.

Simon’s picture features depth, perspective, and a soft color palette that sooths the soul. However, it also contains giraffes, a Ferris wheel, and a Saturn rocket launching in the background.

The teacher sighs again. “Never mind, it’s a lovely picture. But next time, try to stick to what you actually saw, okay?” She moves on to the next child, Alice.

Alice’s picture is much more in keeping with the rest of the class. She has colored the barn in her picture blue, but that hardly seems worth mentioning compared to what Simon has done.

“Nice job, Alice,” the teacher says, and heads back towards the front of the classroom.

While the teacher’s attention is elsewhere, Simon smiles to himself.

Mission accomplished.