For as long as students can remember, the color that corresponds to each school subject has been a constant source of debate that can get extremely heated. It’s an argument that provokes many strong opinions, some looked upon with scorn and disbelief, others with approval. Even teachers have gotten roped into these debates, with a few stating that classes have gotten so worked up about the question in the past that it was the sole topic of conversation during the period. But despite the amount of discussions about the topic, there seems to be no clear answer to what each subject’s color is and why. 

To better understand the argument, a survey was conducted with a portion of WHS students along with one staff member that teaches each class. While this is no official research paper that will define each subject’s color forever, this article will offer some insight on the most popular color choices for each subject along with the reasons behind them.

The first section of the survey was about English, and it ended up being pretty split up. At 44%, the color blue had the most votes, and red and yellow tied for second with 22% of votes each. When Mr. Meyers, one of the English teachers at the school, was inquired for his opinion, he shared that he believed blue was the color that corresponded to English, agreeing with the survey’s collective response.

Similar to English, history had the most scattered votes among the color options. Yellow barely edged out the other colors at 33%, with blue close behind at 28%. Most of the other votes were spread out evenly over the other colors, with orange being the only other color with a significant amount of votes. Surprisingly, Mr. McIntyre (history teacher) did not have an aligned opinion with the winning vote, instead sharing that he pictured the subject as more of an orange. He then went on to say that any warm color, such as red and yellow, would make sense to him as well, but that cool colors were “ridiculous” when referring to history.

The results of the science portion of the survey were extremely different when compared to the other subjects. It was a completely unanimous vote for green, and when participants were asked why they chose the same color, the answer became clear. Most students associate science with green because the subject is about life, plants, and nature. Nearly all of these things are green, and even nature is generally thought of as green because of plants and trees. When people think “science”, they also think of all these other things associated with the subject and with the color green. The head of the science department, Mrs. Hilfinger, had the same opinion. She even stated that “the official color of science is green”, and that, combined with the results of the survey, leaves nearly no room for argument on what color belongs to science.

Besides science, math had the most unanimous vote, with nearly 70% of people voting for the color red. Everyone else either put down blue (at 22%) or white (at 11%). Unlike the majority vote, the math teacher that participated in the survey, Mrs. Abdel-Rehim, said that blue was the color she thought of. When the students that chose red were asked why they voted for that color, many of them had similar responses. Math is a subject that many people, at some point in their lives, have not enjoyed experiencing. Because of this, most of the people that put down red associate math with feelings like anger, and that’s what influenced their choices. A few other people that chose either red or blue also mentioned that they picture math as a bold color.

Throughout the survey, all the subjects had at least partial disagreement between colors, other than science. The reason for these differing responses can be found through how each individual decides on a color. For many, it was simply a question of which color binder or notebook they had for each class. For others, they associated their feelings about the subjects with the color they chose. Some even mentioned they put down their favorite color for their favorite class, and least favorite color for least favorite class. At the end of the day, there is no correct response for what color belongs to each subject, but it sure makes for a great discussion.