Bright walls, bright students

This article on CNN.com showcases a great program: simple, inexpensive, huge impacts. It's about Publicolor, a program through which students get to paint over they typically horrible colors found in their schools (anyone remember puke green?), making their schools look exciting and vibrant instead of like prisons. From the article:

On Thursday, 14-year-old Pedro Rodriguez
was busy splashing oriole orange and apple green paints on the walls. The old
colors, he said, "sometimes would make you feel down."

The dull colors on tile walls at P.S. 34 gave way to shimmering lime,
teal blast, yellow flash, tangerine zing and blue wave. The bright shades
contrasted with the tall grayish buildings in the surrounding
neighborhood.

"I like doing work now and I actually like being inside the school
building," Rodriguez said.

It was founded by industrial designer Ruth Lande Shulman, who has turned the concept into an entire organization; however, I think just about anyone with some initiative could buy some paint and paintbrushes and let students and/or volunteers go to town.

What a great idea - making school someplace you don't mind going!