SYDNEY (Reuters) – Teachers using red pen to mark students' work could be harming their psyche as the color is too aggressive, according to education strategies drafted by an Australian state government.
The "Good Mental Health Rocks" kit, which was distributed this month to about 30 schools in Queensland state, offers strategies such as "don't mark in red pen (which can be seen as aggressive) - use a different color."
When I was taking 6th grade math, not only were papers marked with red, but every student's scores on every test were posted on the classroom bulletin board. Low scores were written in red, average ones in black, high ones in blue. You could look color trend on the chart and immediately tell whether you were making progress.
I tried using different colors, and the students paid no attention. When I went back to red, they noticed their mistakes and read the comments.
ReplyDeleteAs a tech writer, I sometimes proofread or edit co-workers' documents and I use a blue editing pencil. That said, I'm a peer, not a teacher. In school, I was never tramatized by red ink (and yes, I saw lots of it).
ReplyDeleteWhy give grades at all? Don't poor grades really make kids feel bad? And with that in mind, we should stop keeping score at football, basketball, and volleyball games, since it makes the losers feel bad, and that hurts their psyche. If there are no scores, no grades, then no one will feel bad. Long live Captain Obama and the secular progressives!
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