Agreeing on Rainbow

We were making a rocket ship to use as a prop for a play the older kids had decided they wanted to stage for the last day of school. I'd procured a long cardboard box that the kids agreed would punch the ticket, but before we started, we needed to discuss exactly what kind of rocket ship this was going to be.

"Black!"

"No, purple!"

"Yellow and green!"

I was writing their nominations on a sheet of butcher paper. By the time we'd completed the list, there was no overlap. Each of the dozen or so kids had suggested a unique color or color combination. I read the list to them, finishing by asking, "How are we going to decide?"

Over the course of their years at Woodland Park, we had sometimes made group decisions by voting so it wasn't a surprise when someone suggested, "Let's vote!" Yes, they all wanted a vote, so I went down their list asking for a show of hands. Each option received, as one might predict, one vote. It was a tie. There was some discussion around this, including some persuasion and negotiation, then a call for a second vote. We were able to eliminate a few, but were still left with a half dozen options.

Of course, that's when someone had an idea: "Let's paint it rainbow!"

This wasn't the first time I'd facilitated a process like this and it was far from the first time that children had hit on the compromise of "rainbow." Indeed, I'm sure it's happened somewhere, but I've never personally witnessed a group of preschoolers who did not opt for rainbow under these circumstances. The conventional wisdom is that a good compromise is one about which no one is entirely happy, but in the case of rainbow, it always seems to delight everyone. Oh, there might still those who would prefer an all pink rocket ship, but the manifest fairness of rainbow, the epiphany of rainbow, the way the children celebrate when they've arrived at this collective decision, tells me that agreement, at least in this case, supersedes individual opinions.

Philosopher John Rawls' "veil of ignorance" is one of the best known thought experiments of the 20th century. He asked, essentially, what kind of social structure would we would want to create if no one knew in advance what position they were going to occupy?

It's fascinating to think about. Like with the children, most of us would wish for a social structure in which fairness was its hallmark. Some of us might opt for fairness out of a selfish fear of awakening to discover we've been randomly assigned to a position of disadvantage, but most of us, I hope, are like these preschoolers: we choose fairness because, well, it's only fair.

Before painting anything rainbow, I've learned to ask the children to do their own thought experiment: what happens when you mix all the colors together? Gray, maybe brown. No preschooler ever wants gray or brown. (Although, interestingly, I've been part of several adult groups charged with deciding on a color for, say, a classroom, or church hallway, or an apartment building lobby, and the compromise is almost always some version of gray or brown.) So then we must discuss how we are going to ensure we get a rainbow and not some version of mud. In the case of the rocket ship, we decided that each kid would choose a color and a section to paint. Then, in agreement, we got to work.

As I watched the rocket ship take its colorful shape, I saw the kind of social structure for which I would wish. Here we were, shoulder-to-shoulder toward a common end, each with space for their own color while making space for the colors of others, taking joy not in getting our own way, but in that together we were magnificent enough to agree.

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Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network or anywhere you download your podcasts.

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