The Subjective Nature of Folder Color

BY JAMES THORNBURG AND NOLAN REDHEAD

Ever since the first kids went off to high school in 1821, there has been one pressing issue: what color belongs to each folder? Some students color-code subjects in order to stay organized, while others have colored folders simply because they were available at

James

For me, math is blue, yellow is English, science is green, and red is history. Math is blue because math symbolizes objective fact, which blue represents to me. Science is green because one of the science classes I took was closely associated with nature, and green is a symbol of nature. History is red because history is often a contentious topic that can be interpreted in many different ways. Red is the color of anger and division; thus, history is red. English is one of the subjects I don’t really have an opinion on. Usually, I assign it to whatever color is left over. However, if I had to pick a color, I would choose yellow. Yellow is the color of old paper and books, and it is the color of words on the page. English deals with books and paper, so English is yellow.

NOLAN

There are obvious answers to this question. I can agree with James that English is yellow, but we all know that History must be green because the Earth is green. Math is blue, but for other reasons. Blue is a color associated with a lack of emotion. Therefore, the subject should be represented as hard facts and logic without emotion. Science has to be the color red, the color associated with blood. In many of the science classes I have participated in, I have dealt with blood.