Now, with this blog post, I am going to switch the subject due to a recent argument with a few of my classmates. I would usually write about 4 different, but amazing things, but I have to write about this current subject. School subjects directly relate to colors. Obviously, some people are going to have their own opinions, but there is only one right answer for each subject: math is blue, reading is red, science is green, and social science is yellow.
Math has to be blue. There is no other option. In math class, we solve equations and basically can not use emotion to solve questions. It has to be based on logic and is completely devoid of emotion. Even though it is frustrating and I can get really mad at it, the feeling of completing a math question is incomparable. Just
like how I associate blue with happiness, that feeling of being able to understand a math concept is amazing. Just that feeling makes everything I have done in math worth it even though I have to put in countless hours. Also if you associate blue with chaos since oceans can be unruly, math still resembles chaos in the way that you are feeling overwhelmed by the homework you have. If you think math is not blue, I genuinely think that you need to be put in a room with me and try to argue your side. It will not work out.
Reading must be red. For any reading-associated class I have ever had, I have to have a red folder. It just doesn’t fit right in my soul if it is any other color. Also, red is an angry color and also a sad color. I connect the angriness associated with 
red to my inability to find the deeper meaning in texts. I always just find the surface meaning and then I can’t really figure out the deeper meaning without guidance from others. Then I get a little sad when I see how easy it is for others to just see it. Also, I don’t enjoy most books which then goes back to me feeling sad that I have to read that book. Also, I generally have the most stress in my reading classes, even more than math, because it usually takes me a few hours to fully understand a text and find a deeper meaning. So, reading must be red.
If we move on to science, green has to be it. Just like the colors before, if I do not have a green folder for science, something just doesn’t feel right. I feel like a puzzle that was made of pieces just jammed together instead of perfectly fitting
with each other. Also, nature and plants are green. What class do we study plants and nature? Science class is the answer. You may do a brief study of nature in your other classes, but to get a deep knowledge of nature, it is taught in science class. Also, I generally see green trees and fields of green grass as delightful and more peaceful. I also find most of my science classes the same. Although I am not as sure on this one as the ones before, I could still most definitely argue this opinion til the other person wants to just stop talking to me.
Lastly, we arrive at my favorite color assignment; social science is yellow. I see yellow as another happy color and in social science class, there is no trickery involved. When a class does not contain trickery, I see that class as an automatic
lovable class. In other subjects such as math and reading, there is always trickery. Especially if you don’t understand what is happening at that moment. In science, there is trickery with how much is actually needed to be known to be able to take a science test and do well on it. You think will be ready for the test and then there is that one question that focuses on the smallest detail in your textbook. In social science, everything is straightforward. It either is in history or supported by facts. As such, social science can only be yellow.
I do understand that there will be others who disagree with me, but hopefully, those people can realize their mistakes and then turn to the correct side of the assignment of colors to classes.
Vishal,
I always love reading about how people categorize their classes because, as you mentioned, this is something that almost everyone has a strong opinion on. Although, I think that I got out of the habit of habitually sticking to my personally assigned class colors when I got into highschool. When this discussion first became a trend on social media, I found myself thinking back to elementary school where they always gave us a school supplies kit with a variety of different colored folders. It was there that the administrators began telling us kids to start categorizing our subjects into color folders, I am guessing to establish good organizing habits. My mom being the person that she is made us save all of the school supplies we didn’t use or the materials that weren’t so badly damaged. Because of this, me and my sister now have an accumulation of folders, crayons, pencils, binders, and notebooks in our basement waiting to be used. This is the only reason I no longer color code my subjects. But, for the sake of your blog post, I will say that Blue is English, Green is science, Yellow is history, so that would have to make math Red. I know, controversial on the blue and red. But blue is just so strongly English. You cannot hate the player, hate the game.
Hello good sir, I have heard this debate going on many times in class and I think it is pretty pointless, however, I am willing to state my opinion. I will start off with math, it should be black. Just like you said, math should be based on logic and completely devoid of emotion, which means that your math folder should either be black or white, but not one person on this planet has a white folder, so black it is. Completing a math problem is not even that satisfying to me, whenever I figure a problem out, I just feel tired which is why black is the perfect color for math. I agree with your reading folder, red is the perfect color to describe English class. Because my enjoyment in English is lower than your fantasy basketball team’s ranking, the red folder symbolizes danger, “Don’t go to English Rohith”. The other two subjects are straightforward, I think everybody agrees with the last two. Overall, I think your color choices were pretty solid, I could see how people’s folder colors change with their personality.
Vishal,
I found your post to be incredibly interesting because the debate between which color should be associated with which school subject is one that has been ongoing amongst my peers throughout my elementary years, and continues throughout high school. I was shocked to read that your color to subject correlations are exactly the same as mine. I also believe that math must be blue, reading must be red, science is green, and social studies is yellow. I had never thought very deeply about why I associated these subjects with these colors, however, upon reading your post, I was able to gain a deeper insight as to why these correlations may exist. Throughout your post, you emphasized that the colors you associated with certain classes were highly linked to the emotions which they provided to you. This perspective was interesting. Generally, I have associated math with blue almost every year. Math has been a logical subject which I enjoyed. However, my Sophomore year, when I took Honors Algebra 2, I found myself confused with math for the first time, and coincidentally enough, I had decided that for that year, math would be red. Your post brings light to the idea that one’s emotions towards a subject may have a very strong correlation to the color which they associate it with.
Well, Vishal, I guess we have to schedule a room to argue in because Social Studies is definitely blue. I’ll give credit where it’s due and say I wholeheartedly agree with you that Science is green and Reading is red. I generally associate green with Biology and Chemistry whenever I think of them. I don’t know if it’s because of plants, ecology, or acids, but it just feels right. Green is the color of nature and symbolizes growth, so it suits Science well. I have no idea why Reading seems red to me, but again, it just seems right. I like what you said about red being the color of anger and sadness. Your explanation of sadness coming whenever you can’t find the deeper meaning of a text was funny but also unfortunately very relatable. Now, back to Social Studies. Social Studies is definitely blue because as you said, blue relates to oceans. When I think of Social Studies I think of geography and the globe, which is why I relate it to the color blue since most of our planet is blue. I don’t have a strong passion for what color math should be, but I think yellow fits it well. Not to associate math with happiness or anything, but yellow seems fairly straightforward. Although, I can see where you’re coming from when you say Math would be blue. I just need more convincing because I think Social Studies fits blue even better.
Vishal, I clicked on this blog post in a fit of rage and to reject your last statement. Math as in blue?! How is this possible? Whenever I think of Math, I think of an association (like you said) of anger, passion, and conciseness that revolves around the stricter practices of mathematics. English would have Yellow because it looks like a pencil (and you write with a pencil). Social Science would be blue because of the cool, diverse feeling you get when you look at the ocean (which is associated with being blue). Social Studies involves many different types of areas to learn about people I think it’s a really flexible and interesting class. We can agree on Science, for the purposes you listed. Despite not agreeing with 75% of your color associations, I think this brings a lot of awareness to how different perceptions can be developed based on the environment we grew up in. Majority of these opinions are based on the initial assignment of colors and subjects that were placed by the teachers we had. A lot of this is independently based on schools. Even though I strongly disagree with this post, I have to applaud you with your reasoning and courage to post something so contreversial! Nice job!
Hi Vishal!
The school subject color dilemma is truly a debate as old as time itself. I imagine that even the cavemen would huddle around the fire and grunt at each other about which subjects are which colors.
To that end, I cannot help but add my two cents to this ancient argument: reading is purple. Maybe this is entirely inspired by my third grade reading log folder, which was purple, but hear me out:
As my elementary school art teachers instilled in me, purple is a mix of red and blue. Like you mentioned, blue is the color of logic and reason, whereas red is a color associated with emotion. For me, reading is both: a mix of red and blue. It is an exploration in the logic of an argument (as AP Lang has taught me how to appreciate) and a way to indulge in the emotion of another person’s imagination.
Perhaps this is a little lame, but I can’t help but think about the approaches to reading we learned about in AP Lit this year. Prose lauds the analytical side of reading (“I read for pleasure, first, but also more analytically, conscious of style, of diction, of how sentences were formed and information was being conveyed….”) while Green notes that reading is “always an act of empathy”.
To me, reading represents this great crossroads where both head and heart meet; thus, it must be purple.
I can’t remember if we talked about this last year in AP Language but the topic seems familiar. I agree that Math is blue because it is hard sometimes and because my own parents labeled a math notebook of mine blue and it has just stuck with me ever since then. There are people who say that Math is red but that is ridiculous because there just is not anything even remotely red about it at all. Science is also green like you said because of nature and plants all being associated with green. We only ever learn about things with a green color in science class so it only makes logical sense. As for English, I don’t know if you see things so clearly. English can be a boring class sometimes and red is associated with anger and I do not get angry in English class as much as I am bored. I would say that black is the most appropriate color for English overall as it is dark and lame. I have no opinion on yellow other than the fact that it is an awful looking color that should be done away with immediately. I have had the same accordion folder since 8th grade and I continue to use it all the time so the color debate does not apply to me anymore.
Hi Vishal–
This is a bold post to make. Reading is certainly red. Social science is certainly yellow. Science and math throw me off– I waver between green and blue. Yesterday, I texted my mom that I needed a new math notebook. Arriving home, I noticed a green notebook on my desk, and something inside me thought “Appropriate.” Therefore, I ultimately choose math as green and science as blue.
But holistically, my views of the colors tend to take a more nuanced approach, as my perspective starts to assign colors to certain classes and topics.
For example, Honors Geo was green. HA2 was red. HPC was likely yellow. BC is probably blue. AP Lang was red. Chem was blue, and Bio was green. Physics is yellow. Reading itself is red. English is blue. Grammar is yellow.
I have to stop myself there before I delve too deep (would sin be blue? Would cos be yellow?)
In regards to your blog, it was very entertaining and particularly funny because you diverged from your theme solely to say this. I relate to your frustrations with math, and currently feel the chaos as I am trying to write this with the burden of studying for tomorrow’s test hanging over my head. Additionally, I laughed at your description of every subject but social studies involving trickery– I acknowledge this, but as someone that hates social studies I must point out that I sometimes envision the yellow of social studies painfully, obnoxiously bright.
Hey Vish. I loved this post because I knew that it was sure to incite controversy, as evidenced by the insane amount of comments on it. And I have to say that my opinion of the folder colors might be a bit controversial. When I was in elementary school, I always had math as red, reading as green, science as yellow, and social studies as blue. I feel the strongest about math being red, which is funny because it is the opposite of blue which you believe is the right color for math. While I do appreciate your reasoning, having math as any color other than red just seems utterly wrong to me for whatever reason. Though I have always had my reading folder as green, your explanation about why you think that science should be green might have changed my mind. It makes perfect sense that it should be green because we study nature and trees in science. Retrospectively, I am unsure why I decided to make my science folder yellow in elementary school, but if it were me now I would definitely change it to green. I found your post really entertaining and am looking forward to reading some more of your blogs in the future.
Hey Vishal! I feel very VERY strongly about this topic and I am so very glad that we are on the same page here. Math is absolutely blue, English is 100% red, Science could be nothing other than green and social studies is definitely yellow . I think you do a very good job of putting my feelings into words. I will say, I usually just say reading is red because they sound alike but your reasoning makes much more sense. I have never heard of anyone disagreeing over a science folder being green, that must be a universal understanding. The yellow social studies is the only one I think is debatable. Social studies have always been my least favorite class simply because that is not my field of interest so any social studies class I have ever taken has been out of obligation. To add to your list, I take french and all of those folders are always either pink or purple. Would you agree? Additional question, do the same rules apply to spiral notebooks? I would say so but I have heard otherwise before. All in all, I automatically deem you as a more trustworthy person simply because of this blog post. Thank you for this insight!