Stop oozing color!!

I wrote a couple of posts ago (in case you missed it) how Thing 1 has been frustrated lately that there's not enough time at school for her to express her artistic side.  Third grade has too many scholastic requirements and art got squeezed out.  Even though she has an after school class in which to expend artistic energy, unbidden creativity oozes out of her sometimes.
She was frustrated last week that her teacher scolded her for being artistic.  When the assignment came home I saw what happened.

Now I realize that the teacher must have her reasons for stopping Thing 1 from going psychedelic on her assignments...  Maybe she's worried if others see Thing 1 doing it, they'll want to do it too, and it will slow down the class.  Does she think decorating your homework is one more stepping stone on the path to becoming a graffiti tagger?   I don't know... but it was so sad hearing Thing 1 (who is an angelic student) get reprimanded for anything, and even harder to hear she was reprimanded for finding a way to be artistic.  

Here's the assignment.  

Exhibit A

 

You can see where she got caught, then had to go back to basic one color shading. 
What the heck is wrong with Partridge Family Bussing her assignments? Not a darn thing that I can see. Those little smiley faces aren't making up for the fact that she's being forced into conformity.
Curse the homogenization of the public school system!  

--------

The kids saw this post sitting up on the computer screen and I got the whole story.  
Thing 1 said she had half finished her math worksheet but then had to go to a reading group.  When she came back to her desk the note was there and the (student) teacher came over and told her she couldn't draw pictures because it wastes time and she'd have to do the whole thing over again plain.   Grrrrrr!