Most people picture little kids when they hear the word, coloring. However, recently, many researchers have found out that coloring helps not only children but also adults. Unfortunately, many people think that coloring is an activity that younger kids enjoy but does not benefit other ages. Most adults think that coloring is not beneficial and it is not worth their time and money spent on it. However, coloring is actually very helpful to everyone, from ages 2 and up. I strongly encourage schools to arrange coloring class for students. 

1  Prevent Alzheimer’s disease
Recently, many experts have been claiming that coloring prevents Alzheimer’s disease, which is a disease where you are forgetting information, such as the route to your house, telephone numbers, people and even your family members! Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease usually show up on many old people. According to Medical Daily, coloring can prevent and deal with depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and anxiety. Because there is no absolute cure or surgery for this disease, schools should prevent them at an early age. Nowadays, coloring books are the “trend” amongst adults. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that coloring books are one of the best selling books between adults. My mom even bought one for herself. If students start coloring at a young age, they will be able to prevent and gain the habit of coloring frequently. If this habit continues until the adulthood, students will have lower chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease.

2 Reduce stress
Homework. Quizzes. Tests. There are too many things that can stress students. Students are pressured by assignments that are due in a week. People might think that stress is not related to health, but stress is closely related to our mental and physical health. Fox News states that coloring calms you down and reduces your stress level in a short amount of time. When we have a quiet coloring time to focus solely on the act of coloring, students will be able forget about their projects that are due tomorrow and feel refreshed. Let students relieve their stress not by screaming, throwing, or yelling at people, but simply by coloring. You really don’t want a tissue box flying towards you. Do you?

3 Better focus
Concentration is one of the most important skills in our lives, and coloring can improve individual's concentration. Isn’t that thrilling? Entrepreneur states, “The practice [of coloring] can also help train the mind to better focus, relax and reset.” As I said earlier, concentration is very important and necessary in our daily lives. When we read, write and think, we need high concentration. Having a high concentration will make these activities proceed faster and result good quality of work. Therefore, by enhancing students’ concentration, they will be able to complete their tasks on time with high quality of work. Many experts claim that Mandalas increase people’s concentration. I have done Mandalas before and indeed, it did increase my concentration and I loved coloring the patterns.

4 Able to learn problem solving skills
You might’ve just said, “Whaaat?” to yourself as you read the subtitle because you would not imagine that coloring is related to problem solving skills. Coloring actually helps increase students’ problem solving abilities which is very surprising. According to Bustle it claims, “[Coloring] opens up the frontal lobe of the brain — the home of organizing and problem solving — and focuses the mind". When we color, we make mistakes. For example, you wanted to color the flower with purple, but you accidently picked up blue because blue and purple color pencils looked very similar. In order to fix it, you could be creative and change the flower into a cloud or a bird. This is what I call, the problem solving abilities. Everyone goes across dilemmas and problems. If students practice how to solve mistakes or problems by coloring, they will be able to fix and ameliorate almost every kind of problem without panicking and asking for much of a help.

5 Increase creativity
Creativity is crucial in our lives, but coloring can improve our creativity. Jason Abrams, PR account manager says “Being in a creative field, it allows me to enhance my creativity and think outside the box.” When coloring, we choose a template and colors to start off. When we color a tree, we often color the leaves with green. Nonetheless, choosing an ironic color is what makes students creative; having their own world of color. Sun does not have to be colored yellow. It can be colored black, green, purple or even silver! If students have reasons for the color selections, that critical thinking will help the students think deeper and be more creative.

Waste of time
Some may argue that with busy schedules that students have, we can not just simply waste time on coloring. As an 8th grader, I have tons of work to complete such as projects, tests, homework, after school activities, extra classes after school, etc. It is a lot for students. This is why I am so passionate about having coloring time at school. I have to admit that coloring does consume time, but I will tell you this. It is worth it. With a little portion of time each day, you can prevent Alzheimer's Disease, reduce stress, have better focus, learn problem solving skills and even increase creativity. Isn’t that a good deal? I am pretty sure that after few tries, the students will enjoy and spend meaningful time with lots of benefits afterwards.

Innovation
I strongly believe that it is now time to innovate the fixed minds of adults. Coloring is not only for children, but for everyone. Just like technology, where everything changes so quickly and everything is new, the people’s thoughts of “Coloring has no merits and it is waste of time.” should change to, “Actually, coloring is just like an orange where it is healthy but also has great tastes because coloring has so many benefits, but it is also fun, relaxing and meaningful.” Thus, I believe that schools should provide and arrange coloring time for students.