In the category of silly stories is this one from the Boston Globe. Teachers are ditching red in favor of purple pens to grade papers. “Red is too frightening,” they say.

Isn’t that the point?

I remember getting assignments back with red all over them. It made me want to do better the next time. Use a friendly color that kids like and you may just encourage them to do worse.

Actually, I suspect that kids will dread seeing purple just as much as they dread seeing red. Ten years from now, we may see the same story play out, except that teachers will be ditching purple in favor of green, or orange.

P.C. seems to have to end.

2 thoughts on “Stick with Red

  1. Agreed. I hated to get anything back from the teacher with red pen markings on it. Parents didn’t like it too much either.

    Do ya think if this goes over we’ll end up changing conventional traffic light colors too? Who ever came up with green for “go”? Why not a lovely shade of lavender?

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