Modern English- Seein' red
I don't think anyone has ever really done an in depth study of just how pathetic the modern academy believes people are. Studies have been done in the way various ethnic groups are either discriminated against or coddled, but few have taken this stance with student populations as a whole, and none that I know of have studied the subject with any sort of specificity. I would like to point out at least one assumption that is given to new teachers due to the fragile nature of our student's egos.
We are not to use red pens.
Seriously, that's a day of teacher training. No using the red pens to mark up the student essays because the student's capacity to learn from criticism will shut down entirely if they are forced to see red ink.
Wow.
We are not to use red pens.
Seriously, that's a day of teacher training. No using the red pens to mark up the student essays because the student's capacity to learn from criticism will shut down entirely if they are forced to see red ink.
Wow.
posted by Monstro D. Whale at
10:57 AM
2 Comments:
Incredible. This explains a LOT. I got REALLY pissed off after getting a high school English paper back one time. Stayed mad for... hell, I'm still pissed about it. Even singled the event out in my memoir. But now that you mention it, the criticism I had such a problem with was written in RED MF-ing INK!!! Maybe throughout the past two long, angry decades, it was just the ink color that pissed me off most.
Seriously, why the phenom? Is it because red reminds us of blood? Our own mortality? Fear of diseases? Communism? Sexuality? Anger?
Hey, what if you rebelled in a novel way -- used red for, say, only B-and-above papers, and also only for praise-laden responses? Might you change the students' (and the administration's) perception of red?
God, I'd lve to sit in on a day-long training class about pen color!!!! Wouldn't it be, like the most fun in the whole world to ask one asinine question after another??? "Uh... I know RED per se is verboten, but how does the administration feel about maroon?"
Ha ha ha ha haaaaa......!
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