It’s important to start a child’s education early, no one’s arguing that, but there are certain things everyone knows you just shouldn’t teach a child of a very young age. For instance, if they like animated films about bunnies, maybe show them Bambi and not Watership Down. Likewise, when it comes to coloring in pictures at preschool, there are certain images that pretty much the entire world would agree are not appropriate fare.
Everyone in the world, it seems, except the proprietors of the preschool this couple’s kid attends. One mirthful mom and dad went viral on TikTok thanks to a video revealing their offspring’s hilariously unexpected art project. The video begins with the husband, having recently returned from picking their child up from preschool, clutching a piece of paper in his hand that he’s holding away from his wife.
“Do you think our three-year-old at our church-sponsored preschool should be tracing and coloring… the events of 9/11?!” the dad exclaims, before turning around the paper with a dramatic flourish. Sure enough, the page depicts a black-and-white rendering of the terrible historical event. At least the couple’s kid decided to make the task a little less bleak by adding some liberal and impressively abstract slashes of green and yellow to the sorry scene.
Cue the mom letting out one long hysterical wheeze, before saying, “That is the last thing I expected.” The dad then admits, with a look of pure bewilderment, “I’ve just been staring at it in the kitchen.” Just to make this whole situation even more mystifying, the mom then clarifies, “Also it’s July 31st.” It’s also worth drawing your attention to the word written in the top corner of the page. “Towres,” it says, in neat handwriting that is definitely the work of an adult and not an infant.
“Why are there even coloring pages like this in the first place?” asked one commenter, speaking for us all. Others can’t get over the fact that this is a religious preschool: “It’s not the 3yo’s age that sent me it was the “church sponsored preschool” that sent me over the edge.” For some of a certain age, however, this is no big deal. “In my day they wheeled out the big tv in school and let us watch the twin towers live,” admitted one. Another recalled: “I was given an assignment once in 3rd grade where we had to draw what we would’ve done if we were in the towers. I got a bad grade cause I drew me with a parachute.”
According to the American College of Education, the five key things that children need to learn in preschool are motor skills, listening skills, basic needs, social skills, and free, unstructured play — strangely, I don’t see “learn to paint 9/11 like Jackson Pollock” on that list.