Amanda Healy
Dr Newcomb
ENG 170: Writing and Rhetoric
8 Jul. 2022
Crayons and Childhood Creativity
Childhood is best represented by a toy that allows for everything that we want out of childhood. We want to be creative, stretch our muscles, and practice skills to bring into the adult world. All of these can be found in Crayola crayons, and they’re mess-free and non-toxic to top it off. Crayola crayons have spent over a century lending themselves to the creativity and expression of children, as well as any other age group who wants to pick them up, and by simply offering the ability to create, Crayola crayons have sparked and fueled the minds of millions of children through hundreds of billions of crayons. They are 3.5 inch long wax pencils wrapped in paper, and come in assorted colors that have only diversified over the decades. Crayola crayons entered the National Toy Hall of Fame when it was inducted in 1998 (The Strong). Not only are these crayons appealing to children and artists, but they represent a history of art, education, and culture over the past century. Binney and Smith created an industry that inspires and enables children through affordable and available materials. The Strong National Museum of Play not only shows off these crayons, but also a strong rhetorical appeal. Having this toy in the Hall of Fame is a way of establishing ethos before even reading the article, as it is a list of prestigious and verifiably formative toys.
The logos of The Strong’s article is clear; they use many statistics about Crayola and their history. Children “use up billions” of Crayola crayons each year (The Strong), but where did it begin? In 1900, paint makers Binney and Smith sought out a replacement for the “poor quality chalk” teachers were using in classrooms, and by 1903 their reimagined grease pencils hit the market in eight colors (The Strong). They cost five cents per box and were a hit with kids, especially as they added more colors in the 20’s, then again in the 60’s, 70’s, and so on; these colors are ones we think of as classic staples, such as “Burnt Sienna” and “Tickle Me Pink” (The Strong). These colors were often developed in accordance with “fashion trends and cultural change” (The Strong). Come the 60’s and 70’s, our entire culture began to produce more colorful and artistic clothing and music, so why not crayons as well? Some colors have retired, but many have been added as well. In addition to retired colors, Crayola has changed names of its colors such as “Flesh” and “Indian Red,” changed to “Peach” and “Chestnut,” respectively (The Strong). Their response to cultural change is admirable, but of course does not alter the past. The Strong’s article continues to develop its rhetorical appeal through pathos, showing how responsive Crayola is to cultural change, from its creation as an educational tool to its cultural responsiveness through the years.
The history of Crayola crayons goes back well over a century. They were made because of “teachers’ complaints of poor quality chalk” and Binney and Smith wanted to provide an alternative, inspired by grease pencils (The Strong). Unlike pencils, they were colorful, and unlike most art supplies, they can be cleaned up after, or don’t make a mess to begin with. They were better quality than the chalk they replaced (and of course Crayola went on to also make chalk) and started at only five cents per box. They were cheap so far as school supplies go, and easy to use. Children in observational studies are found to prefer crayons as their art material “because of the look, texture, and easiness” (Swierenga). For younger children who cannot grip a thin crayon, “Crayola created thick crayons” that are easier to grip and, as a consequence, have a longer lifespan because they are harder to break and contain much more wax (Swierenga). In the classroom and at home through general use, crayons can be a gateway into more art and school materials through the development of fine motor skills, and can motivate children to want to write and draw. Crayola crayons represent the perfect childhood material: they are mess-free, nontoxic, colorful, and continue to be developed with children in mind.
Crayola encourages kids to read and identify, as well as generate new art, through a multitude of color options and the fun names that come with them. Blue-black is an interesting color to use, but I am much more drawn to it when reading that it’s called “Outer Space.” Not only does it draw people into the colors, but it also sparks ideas for what to create. The prompt of “Outer Space” could create millions and billions of pieces of childhood art, because from there the child can do whatever they want with all of the colors available to them. The Crayola company has gone on to create all sorts of art materials for children, and its use in schools has continued strongly, even as other companies have popped up to create similar products. Crayola crayons are a staple in many homes and classrooms. Crayons define childhood as a representation of a child’s first art material, writing implement, and creative outlet. Childhood is a time to create, learn about the physical world around you, and develop motor skills through play and creativity.
Crayons offer not only an opportunity to develop motor skills through their use, but also provide an outlet for children to explore the physical world around them. Additionally, children may find crayons to be a creative outlet that kick starts their desire to learn about and identify colors. Even if they do not want to explore color theory, children find entertainment (and education) in coloring. Studies have been conducted that observe children and the way they use crayons, including an observational study written about in 2013 that observes young children using crayons as a group. Just using crayons for a while will encourage children to use identification skills to get the colors they want. In the classroom study, “most of the children could differentiate between the different colors and could name the color” (Swierenga). Crayons are often preferred as opposed to markers, because “markers are very messy. Little kids have a tendency to get marker ink on their arms, clothing, and the tables. Crayons are less messy” (Swierenga). Additionally, Crayola makes thicker crayons that are easy for younger children to grip, encouraging early motor skills (Swierenga). Besides being non-toxic and easy to clean up, the names are inviting and prompt children to want to create (The Strong). More than pencils, markers, and paint, crayons are a material that allow children to harmlessly and freely create.
Childhood is not a time to be restrained to limited colors and materials, or to be kept from creativity in favor of a strictly educational experience. In the observational study, children were found to be influenced by each other when making art (which, at their age, was scribbles). When one child said they were making a lion, “the other children heard the first child’s answer and also answered with an animal” (Swierenga). While this seems like a limiting factor of creativity, it is actually a form of communication and idea sharing for young children. They often bounce off each other to expand their creative motivations and to find new or shared interests. Crayons are also not completely mess-free, and “many children will sit and just peel the paper off the crayon instead of coloring” (Swierenga). That paper allows for a better tactile experience as well as making them more durable, so long as they are not being peeled. Regardless of the material, children will be destructive as a way to explore their physical world. If they are going to destroy anything, let it be the paper on a crayon. Vacuuming little pieces of paper off the carpet sounds awful, but it is better than scrubbing out ink. Some children are seeking the tactile feeling of tearing, so an old newspaper might provide the same sensation if they need something to tear and the crayons need to be spared.
The classroom is a place where children experience a trial run of socialization, and get to interact with each other in unrefined ways that show how they are learning over time. By sharing a classroom set of crayons, in buckets or cups and not belonging to anyone in particular, children can learn sharing when on an equal playing field. When children show up to the classroom with different types or numbers of crayons, they recognize the social implications and how they differ from their peers, adding a layer to the social world they are still learning about. In a study written about in 2003 by Debra Wetcher-Hendricks and Wade Luquet, children were observed recognizing the inequality among them through the number of crayons they were able to bring from home, especially if they had the big box with all the colors. In kindergarten, many children are “supplementing their supply [of crayons] with extra provisions from home, creating a group of “lucky” individuals who had an advantage over the others” (Wetcher-Hendricks and Luquet 345). There have also been lessons done on inequality using crayons that were passed out by the box, all different counts of crayons, and students had to make do with the colors given to them (Wetcher-Hendricks and Luquet 347). Some students were amazed “that gold and silver crayons existed and disappoint[ed] in the realization that they would have no way to obtain these riches other than by begging or borrowing” from the peers who had larger packs of crayons (Wetcher-Hendricks and Luquet 347). This lesson is being done for older kids, but for kindergarten students, this social conundrum is no metaphor and has real effects. But for the older students that the lesson is being proposed for, crayons are something they may be using regularly in class still, but they are starting to understand the nuances of social life beyond their own circumstances and this lesson makes use of a common material that everyone has familiarity with.
For younger children, it can be harder to explain that some people have more or less money than others, and their family falls somewhere on that spectrum. But they are living in a world of consumerism, so most children have an idea of worth and items that need to be obtained, so it is easy for that to lead into ideas about who is “lucky” or who has the coolest stuff. The crayon is representative of a product developed for consumption, and while it has been developed with children in mind, it also exists in a capitalist society that depends on physical representations of wealth. Bigger boxes with more colors have been made, even with a crayon sharpener on the back. This is not exactly in line with a childhood of creativity and freedom of expression, but it does fit in line with the child as a consumer and the classroom as a social arena where children learn about the world they live in.
The crayon, while a common material, is still something that is largely inaccessible to many students. There is a class division that is clear in how children receive educational supplies. It is representative not only of the opportunity to develop refined skills and a creative mind, but of the lack of opportunity and how many children may miss out on that development. Crayola’s presence is something that not only aids the children who have them, but alienates the children who do not. They no longer cost five cents per box, but are still relatively affordable, which speaks to how underfunded some classrooms are that they do not have enough materials for their students.
Works Cited
“Crayola Crayons.” The Strong National Museum of Play, 10 Nov. 2021,
https://www.museumofplay.org/toys/crayola-crayons/.
Swierenga, Melissa, Philip J. Millage, and Shawn M. Carraher. Marketing Ethnography: Future
Options For Crayola Crayons. 20 Vol. Arden: Jordan Whitney Enterprises, Inc, 2013.
ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1509212014? pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true.
Wetcher-Hendricks, Debra, and Wade Luquet. “Teaching Stratification with Crayons.”
American Sociological Association, July 2003,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3211332.