California Conservative

As if American public school systems don’t have enough to worry about like, maybe, raising standards and improving the overall level of education, this just in:

On Monday, CNN reported: “At Daniels Farm Elementary School in Trumbull, Connecticut, [school principal Gail] Karwoski’s teachers grade papers by giving examples of better answers for those students who make mistakes. But that approach meant the kids often found their work covered in red, the color that teachers long have used to grade work.

Parents objected. Red writing, they said, was “stressful.” The principal said teachers were just giving constructive advice and the color of ink used to convey that message should not matter. But some parents could not let it go.”

What’s up with the parents in Trumbull, CT? Is this John Kerry country, or what? (It’s a safe bet he wouldn’t use red grading his own “global test.”)

“So the school put red on the blacklist. Blue and other colors are in.”

Isn’t that discrimination by color? Unfortunately, they’re not joking. The AP continues:

In many other schools, it’s black and white when it comes to red. The color has become so symbolic of negativity that some principals and teachers will not touch it.

Joseph Foriska, principal of Thaddeus Stevens Elementary in Pittsburgh, has instructed his teachers to grade with colors featuring more “pleasant-feeling tones” so that their instructional messages do not come across as derogatory or demeaning.

“The color is everything,” said Foriska, an educator for 31 years.

Well, I guess he must know. But you don’t need tenure for that kind of keen insight. A newby teacher offers this great perspective:

“My generation was brought up on right or wrong with no in between, and red was always in your face,” says Justin Kazmark, a 25-year-old teacher at Public School 188 in Manhatta. “It’s abrasive to me. Purple is just a little bit more gentle. Part of my job is to be attuned to what kids respond to, and red is not one of those colors.”

Purple is more gentle? “Red was always in your face,” man? Un-be-lievable. This guy sounds like he grew up in the communist-era 60’s, not the capitalist-80’s.

Mr. Kazmark grades with purple, which has emerged as a new color of choice for many educators, pen manufacturers confirm.

Three top pen and marker manufacturers — Bic, Pilot Pen and Sanford, which produces Papermate and Sharpie — are making more purple pens in response to rising sales. School leaders and teachers are largely driving that demand, company representatives say.

“They’re trying to be positive and reinforcing rather than being harsh,” said Robert Silberman, Pilot Pen’s vice president of marketing. “Teachers are taking that to heart.”

My prediction and forewarning: If we allow this coddling, hyper-sensitivity training to continue, our schools will be “educating” a generation that is too soft; unable to deal with failure, and therefore incapable of achieving success.

Teachers should take that to heart. And so should all parents.

Sidenote: Might one deduce that educators may also be implying that young students might hold a latent aversion to “red states,” too. Especially after being trained that red is a color to be shunned, maybe they’ll have a predisposition against conservatism. Not that teachers would ever want that.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 7th, 2005 at 7:37 pm and is filed under Culture, Education, Liberals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.