St. Andrew’s students have colorful opinions about their classes. In recent months, the “What Color are the Classes?” debate has sparked conversations among students across the country on social media. In our own school community, many have made their stands on the topic. “I think it’s fun to bring up the topic and go into heated discussion among friends,” Junior Stella Jolly said. “Someone disagrees with another person almost ten seconds into the conversation.”

Part of the fun of the debate is assigning colors to the classes. Jolly feels like English is a blue class which takes into account the way the class makes her feel. “Sometimes going to English makes me sad,” Jolly said.  A recent student survey showed that the majority of SA students have said that English class is blue for reasons similar to Jolly’s.  

Like Jolly, Sophomore Abby Ireland said that Math was a warmer color on the color palette.  “In my opinion,” Ireland said, “math is red because it makes me angry sometimes when doing the problems.”  This has been a popular opinion among SA students.  Another reason students may associate Math with red is the color of ink teachers use to grade student work. 

But Math was not the only class to have a specific color popularly assigned to it. “Science is green because when you think of chemicals, green is in your head,” Junior Lance Bonner said. “It also reminds me of Dexter’s Laboratory.” 

“I hadn’t heard much on the topic until recently when Ms. Rodriguez mentioned it to me,” Art teacher Jane Cleek said. “I think it is interesting and can reveal a lot about a student’s favorite subjects.” Cleek teaches Upper School painting, drawing, and ceramics. “I think ceramics would have to be an orange or earth tone, reminiscent of the color of some clays,” Cleek said. “Painting would have to be multicolored, like a color wheel or white and painted by the student to be whatever he or she wanted it to look like.”

Color theory could possibly play a role in students’ class color choices.  “When I think of colors,” Cleek said, “I think about the emotions/feelings they evoke.” Cleek  thinks there are specific reasons why students choose specific colors for classes. “Blue is usually associated with calmness or serenity,” Cleek said,  “orange is typically an energizing and welcoming color, yellow is a color associated with happiness, and red is typically associated with passion, but it can also be symbolic of anger.” Cleek reminisced about what color she would assign some of her classes when she was in high school. “I might have chosen a red binder for Calculus because it was my hardest and therefore most angering subject,” Cleek said, “or I might have chosen red for Art because it’s my passion!”

 No debate comes without insane hot takes on the topic, especially the infamous class color debate. Students might have an opinion that is completely justifiable. “Personally, I think English is yellow,” Ireland said, “because English is my favorite subject and yellow is a happy color.” Others’ opinions may not seem as intuitive.  “This may be insanely controversial,” Jolly said, “but on certain occasions, Math is green.”