Naughty naughty red pens!
I read in today’s paper that a local town has asked teachers to throw out their red pens and use another color, to place comments upon students’ papers. Apparently parents have complained that all the red corrections and comments are stressful to their children’s eyes. Red, they say, is an agitating and stress producing color
Awww.
Purple has been chosen by most teachers as the new red and will now be used for leaving comments and corrections on students’ papers, though other colors, with the exception of red, will also be allowed.
(Fast forward 5 years from now and reread the above news item only substitute the color purple where the color red is cited and substitute red for purple.)
I guess parents and teachers don’t realize that being corrected at all is the problem and not the color of the pen.
I read in today’s paper that a local town has asked teachers to throw out their red pens and use another color, to place comments upon students’ papers. Apparently parents have complained that all the red corrections and comments are stressful to their children’s eyes. Red, they say, is an agitating and stress producing color
Awww.
Purple has been chosen by most teachers as the new red and will now be used for leaving comments and corrections on students’ papers, though other colors, with the exception of red, will also be allowed.
(Fast forward 5 years from now and reread the above news item only substitute the color purple where the color red is cited and substitute red for purple.)
I guess parents and teachers don’t realize that being corrected at all is the problem and not the color of the pen.
posted by mary bishop | 11:46 AM
8 Comments:
I used to use purple and green and other fun colors - kids hated it because it meant that they really DID have to use pencils. Plus, it doesn't matter what the color is. If their paper's covered in it, it hurts. Stupid administrative novelties. Schools, even public ones, are more about catering to the parents and the students than about teaching anymore. Not all of them, but a lot of the administrations I've dealt with sure make it feel that way.
Hey - you win a prize! You got a comment to stick on Blogger and I haven't been able to do much of anything for two days. Good job!!!
I feel that the more federal laws for education, the less education that goes on.
No Child Left Behind seems to be leaving all children behind the eight ball.
Give me a good-hearted teacher with a firm hand and less intervention from admins, state, and fed gov and parents too --and I'd bet all the kids in the class would do better.
I've been hearing about this thing with (or rather without!) red pens for a while now, here in NY, and this is one of the stupid things I've ever heard.
If the parents used the time they spent arguing about pen color and spent it helping their kid with their school work, red pens wpuldn't be in the shithouse.
What a bunch of dumbasses.
Yup the plum the doc and Irina are all right. Whoever started the anti-red pen movement are a bunch of stupid dumbasses, and docnos, I agree you should petition the AMA to change the color of blood so it won't be so offensive.
OK, hi there, but I must go away and come back another time. Maybe after a nap or something. 'Cause I read your first sentence three times as, "Naughty, naughty red penis." Oh dear. I'll see ya later.
OK, now I get it. PENS. I used to work in a Catholic elementary school where the kindergartners were going home with their papers covered in red corrections. Of course, echrai is right, it's not the color that's the problem. I persuaded some teachers to acknowledge what was right on the paper (w/check marks or smiles), and that which was unacknowledged, the kids and parents would know needed more effort. Some parents preferred red Xs to my "accentuate the positive" approach. I dunno.
HI susie...
Naughty naughty red penis was a post I wrote earlier or a post I must write in the future...
(laughing so loud the dogs are looking at me funny.)
How about a children's book: The Naughty Red Penis by Mary Bishop
Do you think it could win the Caldecott Medal?
Once upon a time there was a naughty red penis...hey isn't Elmo red?
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