cyan or cerulean

It is fire drill season in schools. We have sometimes two a day. But the best one yet was yesterday, 9th (last) period. I don't usually talk about specifics of my work on this blog, but I really want to document this story. This story is why I became a Special Education teacher. This story just doesn't happen enough in the position I have now. I am (for) now the special education testing room monitor at a high school. Students who require additional assistance or extra time on tests come to this room.

So, 9th period Friday, the announcement comes across the P.A. that there will be a planned fire drill momentarily, "please exit the building in an orderly fashion etc...." I have two students in the room, one of which is a pretty normal kid, the other is not. I am walking out with this odd 10th grader and I said to him, "Are you looking forward to the weekend?"

He says, "Who are you?"

I tell him who I am and again ask him if he is looking forward to the weekend.

He says with a hands fisted gesture, "Yeah! No more teacher's dirty looks!"

I said next, "It is such a beautiful day, look at that blue sky. I have never seen the sky so blue."

He says something I can't quite hear.

But I figure out that he mumbled, "It's cyan."

So I said to him, "Cyan? Oh... I always think of cerulean as being sky blue.

I think of Cyan as being the color of water, with a little bit of green in the blue."

He says, "Well, it depends on the body of water of course, you certainly wouldn't describe the Black Sea as cyan."