Schools begin banning teachers from using red ink

[orangeapples]

meh, my teachers in high school used blue pen

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Old news is old.

This practice has been the poster-child for overprotective parenting/legislature for several years. It's weird that people are only now hearing about it.

 

[kingcat1]

three words , the daily mail.

 

[RemuValtrez]

That is just silly. When I was in school, students were prohibited from using red on assignments, as that is what the teacher would use to show us when we were doing something wrong. It was something that would stand out from the black/blue/pencil lead on the paper. I did one assignment in red as I had no other pen/pencil and I got a 0 on it and was told to redo it. It's not a color that shows "Hey you're dumb" it's something that is used to let others know what to change so they can, yanno, learn.

 

[Hashime]

I bet there will be an increase in marking mistakes. Ever tried reading 200+ papers and looking for errors to count were the ink is the same colour as the text? I guess if they used green or blue instead it would be alright.

 

[BabyRaptor]

I always assumed teachers used red so the corrections would stand out. Little did I know that my teachers were trying to break my spirit, apparently.

Well, I'd like to stand up and inform them that they failed.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

Where I live, we have a problem, about half the schools teach the kids how wonderful they are, and encourage the hell outa them, they don't write marks down, and nobody is ever really corrected, just encouraged, the rest are mixed between correcting and encouraging, and just correcting... it's been that way for long enough that we're looking at a couple "school generations" and it's readily apparent that the people generally from the schools that are too coddling, end up either useless or pricks, and generally not equipped for the HARSHNESS OF REALITY, everyone else seems to be doing just fine, hell most of the people I know including myself that have lived a relatively less merciful forgiving and overall cushy life, have become the chillest easiest going least self important(without becoming totally insecure), we know we're just people and do what we can to just be people, with our own ambitions, and no major psychological problems, cuz we've dealt with that crap for a good deal of our younger years, and GROWN and become responsible and capable people. Most of the other people I know who were raised in an altogether too soft environment(as far as I can see) have all ended up being either incredibly needy, or fucked up in some way... they have a hard tome coping with basic stuff, and any time their life sucks and they aren't having fun all the time they go running to a psychiatrist for meds... I know some people have problems, but honestly if we really have such a high number of people who can't cope and need medication just to not commit suicide, or attempt daily, we either need to change the society in which we live, or just let em all do it and get rid of the weak genetic strain that is threatening to overtake our race and spell out our extinction...

So, I don't think the elimination of red ink is really the issue here, it's that it's happening as just ONE of the many changes put in place to continue the breakdown of our social standards into a pablum-like mush, where the weak and needy are coddled at the expense of those who can bloody well survive.

just my $0.02

/end rant

 

[gabe12301]

I.... don't see the problem with this. I honestly don't. Red ink is used for Fear factor. Red is the color of danger after all. That's the only reason its used. It says: "You fucked up son. You fucked up bad. Now I'm gonna fuck you up!".

It's a classic remnant of the traditional/old-fashioned education system (there's a word for that, I'm sure); the system that scoffs at modern teaching practices like peer-discussion based education and gamification of education. It's a 500 year old practice that's designed to embarrass kids for their mistakes instead of helping them learn from their mistakes.

What I'm trying to say is, traditional/old-fashioned education sucks, in my opinion at least. If they have any kind of reason to believe that getting rid of red ink will help kids feel more attached to schoolwork, and less like a slave of the educational system: Fucking, TRY that shit OUT! Experiment until you find a definitive answer, or something close to that. If it works out: FANTASTIC! We just evolved a little bit as a sapient race.

Also, I don't know if I should be disappointed that so many of you sound like bitter old coots yelling "Those darn kids! We're making them soft! In my day, the teacher used to get out the red pen.....and beat the ever-loving FUCK out of us!! They deserve the same, not better!"

I'm sorry what? I'm actually learning in the current education system and it sucks. Peer-discussion based education doesn't really work simply because it's hard to keep children focused and no one is gamifying anything.red ink is used to mark because it's visible and you are supposed to not want a poor grade. I supposed next were going to replace F's with frown faces to make them less intimidating? one of my teachers tried to make the classroom "engaging" and "fun" Guess which students almost failed their final exams. EVERY student that had her as a teacher.

I also had another teacher.Although he was an ass and we all hated him, we all passed with a 5.5-6.0 on our final writing tests (6 is the highest) because shielding children from difficulty DOES NOT FREAKING WORK!

 

[Urgh76]

It's at times like this I wish I had the "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" image.

Will you accept a video clip instead?

Damn, you beat me to it

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I would also need to point out that getting a 750 on your English SAT doesn't actually "spite" your English teacher seeing as how those numbers would be placed into her file and she would receive "credit" for them (just as students who do poorly on standardized tests get the teachers blamed for their failure, regardless of how much the teaching had to do with it), so if anything, you actually helped her permanent record....and she's probably glad she threw you out because it reduced the stress on her class. You made it a win-win for her, so right now she's probably quite happy.

Just something to think about, since you seem to be really overexcited about how you've somehow "beat the system" when really, you haven't. You've played into their hands if anything, since generally teachers look better when they aren't giving a lot of Fs, and students' test scores earn the teachers either blame or praise regardless of how much the teacher had to do with the score. This is why I generally oppose standardized testing as a general rule, as it attributes blame for poor scores to everyone EXCEPT students as it presumes that students can never do wrong, when you've just nicely illustrated the perfect sort of negative attitude that, in normal circumstances (yours being more "abnormal" since you actually passed), can tend to hurt a lot of schools' scores.

...And you make assumptions about my class structure as well, so I guess we're even. But yeah, no, the English teacher in question had nothing to do with my SATs par' se. She didn't get a raise, since the schools here technically have nothing to do with SATs (I'm not american if that wasn't clear.). She was just supposed to teach me English (for school purposes/shits and giggles) and she failed to do so because she was too pompous and egotistical to acknowledge that I didn't fit firmly into her cookie-cutter mold of what an English student should be. My getting a 750 is just me saying to her: "In spite of your best efforts, I managed to learn English. So HA!"

Now, you can still blame me for having the "negative attitude". That would just be the response I expect you to have as a teacher yourself: blaming the kids for being ignorant pestilent little warts, getting in the way of the hard-working teachers who "can never do wrong"......

But I would keep disagreeing with you. There ARE teachers who use their occupations as fallacious "seats of power". And these people DO use red ink, and raised podiums/chairs as subtle methods to maintain control. That's not in any way indicative of all teachers, or in fact, a general fault in the system. I'm just saying it exists and should be made to NOT exist, since it prevents certain teachers from viewing students as potential human beings.

I'm not saying all classrooms should become peer-based hippy classes taught under trees. I'm just saying that you don't NEED red ink, just like you don't NEED to create an arbitrary barrier between teachers and students. That's what psychological power plays, like the use of red ink, do. They create barriers.

I mean I've yet to run into a college professor who writes down critiques in foreboding red ink. They usually just write with a normal (or blue or green) pen, hoping that the kids are smart enough to pick out the professor's handwriting from their own. And colleges, as a result, foster a much better kind of student-teacher relationship. Why can't that be emulated in High schools is all I want to know.

 

[Abengoshis]

Red ink stands out on the page against black ink. What is wrong with people, do they think its like writing in blood or something? Its not demoralising when you get a really good compliment in red ink, so wtf is that about?

 

[synobal]

I'd grade my papers with blood but I'd die from blood loss in a day or two tops.

 

[Wade Wilson]

When I was in school, students were prohibited from using red on assignments, as that is what the teacher would use to show us when we were doing something wrong. It was something that would stand out from the black/blue/pencil lead on the paper. I did one assignment in red as I had no other pen/pencil and I got a 0 on it and was told to redo it.

If this was the case, why didn't your retard teacher just invert the color scheme for that one assignment and use black/blue/pencil for marking purposes, which, according to them, would stand out from red?

Were they really that fucking asinine?
Some teachers are unbelievable.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I'm not saying all classrooms should become peer-based hippy classes taught under trees. I'm just saying that you don't NEED red ink, just like you don't NEED to create an arbitrary barrier between teachers and students. That's what psychological power plays, like the use of red ink, do. They create barriers.

Actually I disagree, there DOES need to be a barrier between students and teachers. There is a very clear line that can't be crossed when it comes to being personal with students, and crossing that line is oftentimes far worse than the opposite. It's all a matter of balance. Students and teachers can be "friends" but only to a certain degree. Personal matters have to be kept to a minimum (can't have teachers discussing their sex lives with their students in the same manner that they might with their bar friends) and there.

Eh I didn't think we'd come to an agreement on that one. And that is, in my opinion, the crux of the argument. The core: Whether or not, teachers should be sealed inside a hermetically-sealed bullet-proof glass box, in the front of class, with a menacing red pen as their only method of communication....

And on further inspection, that topic is just too big for me. My "observations" are just not going to cut it at this point, so I guess I'll secede. I still strongly disagree with the sterile, methodical and mcdonaldized education system that you are so eagerly trumpeting.... but as always, you are entitled to your opinion, I am to mine.

I just hope that the abolition of the red ink, while a little harsh, might lead to some kind of new paradigm shift in the education process. Is it likely? No. But one can hope.

 

[fragmaster09]

Cameron will do nothing, i know it

my maths teacher (we says 'maths' as in multiple sums(each sum is a math, so the subject is made of multiple maths, hence making it 'maths', or 'mathematics', that's how i see it, at least =3) gave us all a pointlessly easy homework, which i did terribly, with 7/18 marks correct, i piece went missing, and i got 1 wrong, i also missed all of the 'working' beig written down, after redoing it, i got 15, but if he hadn't used that bold red biro to tell me that i had to do it again, and show me that i accidentally switched 2 answers around, then i wouldn't know at all

 

[fragmaster09]

I have to say, I guess I subconsciously prefer other colours, but something so standard shouldn't be banned. That's just ridiculous.

the art teachers in my school are known to always write comments in black,blue or green, often green, but it throws you off, you write in blue/black, so you nkow that's YOUR writing/annotations/comments, etc, and green just seems too positive, for one of them, and doesn't suit the other(younger, more positive) one...

the again... i hate the idea of separation from the teachers, i often find myself chatting to the teachers as i would a not-so-trustworthy friend, and many of my friends get away with making outright jokes or even light-hearted insults TO THEIR FACE... although my maths teacher did say (light-heartedly)how satisfying the crunch of his fist would be before he threw him out the window... because he was caled a mad old welshman...