Under Britain’s last Labour government the use of red ink by teachers to mark papers was outlawed in hundreds of schools because it was considered “confrontational” and ”threatening”. The current Conservative government has rescinded that kind of silliness but it appears that not all schools have gotten the message.
Harrow East, part of the London suburbs is a politically divided area. Labour still run the local council but the MP is Conservative Bob Blackman. He was horrified to learn that one of the secondary schools in his district has ordered teachers not to use red pens when marking homework so that pupils do not get upset.
Said Blackman: “A teacher contacted me and said I cannot believe I have been instructed by my head to mark children’s homework in particular colours and not to use certain colours. It is all about not wanting to discourage youngsters if their work is marked wrong. It sounds to me like some petty edict which is nonsense. It is absolutely political correctness gone wild. My take on all this is to say children need to understand the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong.”
The policy in Harrow is at odds with the current government’s education guidelines which insist pupils are marked down for poor spelling and grammar, in an attempt to raise the standards of schoolchildren, to better equip them for the outside world.
However the no-on-red campaign has plenty of advocates in education circles. “I do not use red,” said Robin Slipakoff, a teacher in Plantation, Florida. “Red has a negative connotation, and we want to promote self-confidence. I like purple. I use purple a lot.”
Meanwhile Queensland teachers were given mental-health kits in 2008 saying “don’t mark in red pen (which can be seen as agrressive) – use a different color.” (Yes - aggressive was spelt wrong). An unidentified professor said “boy can I tell which students have never seen red ink before. They also happen to be the same ones who have a nervous breakdown or have their parents call me when they get anything less than an A. One of them actually told me, ‘I don’t like it that you give edits in red ink.
It makes me feel like I’m not perfect.’”
And herein lays the bigger problem. Too many young people have been mollycoddled for too long, protected from the consequences of their actions. When they finally have to face up to reality i.e. – you can’t spell, they get offended. Understanding this may clue us in to how our democracies arrive at some the leaders they elect.
How long will it be before somebody refuses to stop at a red traffic light because the colour offends them? It sounds comical but with the PC brigade nothing is that far away. A person disagrees with the said light and ignores it, then blames the government for using an offensive colour and questions if they have the right to tell him to wait. The family of a motorist killed in the incident sues the government for using red traffic lights.
Healthy thinking encourages correction! When a student openly expresses dislike at this it is rebellion against the concept of education. But not wishing to overtly do that they criticize the way the education is conducted, like red pen marking. This kind of control by the student is passive-aggressive behavior. Schools would do well to recognize that and confront it for what it is.
One teacher said she is switching to green ink this year saying “I had to recognize the possibility that I might be making my own students uncomfortable.” This in hoping that feedback will be more readily received in a colour that doesn’t say, “You messed up.”
We associate red with caution and warning, danger. Green is used for go, correct, proceed, this way. If teachers switched to green they would be identifying mistakes with the symbolism that you are doing the right thing. It’s a contradiction, but too many in academia are more concerned with protecting the feelings of others rather than actually teaching them something. Until that is seen and addressed, the PC brigade will continue to find new ways to consume our resources.
