It's that I just don't want to dull his mind with coloring books
Please, please, please rethink your position.
While i'd agree you have an issue if coloring books were the only offering in lieu of classwork, I have to say that coloring books were a savior to me as a kid. I could easily get lost coloring. I learned all sorts of techniques for shading, complimentray colors, texturing, etc. and just the sheer ability to color something how I WANTED to was a creative freedom that was allowed on a world where kids were supposed to listen rather than think. That was one of the few things that kept me sane.
What a sad place the world would have been had I not been allowed to color.
As far as the carbon copy aspect of art. Here's a little story for you... My daughter applied to the fashion Institute in NYC and I remember the portfolio review of her designs. The woman was quite excited and gushed that they usually don't get applicants with such a well defined "voice" (a unique sense of style all her own), saying "People just don't do work like this!". Needless to say she was accepted. What does that have to do with carbon copy art? My daughter told me that her art ability was woken somewhere like 3rd grade when she had to do a soap sculpture. She had no idea what to do so she and I sat at the kitchen table and she decided she wanted to carve a fish. So we sketched a design and i had a block of soap and she had a block of soap and she copied what I did. I didn't hold her hands, she did it herself, but she had an example to follow and it just opened her eyes as to what she could do. You never know when a spark is kindled.
Poppa
