OH NO - RED INK

[ParrotHead]

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=3160467&nav=3YeXYE9Z

Teachers have been grading papers with red ink since red ink was invented. Red is a warning. Red ink on a student's paper is a warning that someone is not doing their work and learning their material. Students turn in their work, it's graded and returned with corrections marked on it and a grade at the top. If you do well, you might get an A. If you fail, you get an F. That's how it usually has worked over the years right?

Well it seems that the parents of kids at the Daniels Farm Elementary School in Trumbull, Connecticut are complaining that the red ink being used to grade papers is "too stressful." They call it a symbol of negativity. So the school, spineless as ever, has stopped using red ink. They're using other colors. The principal, Joseph Foriska, has instructed the teachers to write with more "pleasant-feeling tones." As you would expect, this is a government school.

How on Earth are we preparing our kids for the real world when we're worried about their (and their parents') self-esteem over the color of ink used to grade their papers? We're turning out another generation of ignorant candy a***s who will be completely unable to discern the difference between a private investment account and one controlled by the government.

Consider for a moment what our chances are if we continue to allow the government to educate our children.

[Gator]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

I heard something about that this morning, but didn't hear all of it. That is just ridiculous. What is this world coming to?

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

I heard either this same story or another just like it on Limbaugh about 3 or 4 months ago.

What a total load of PC horse hockey!

[wtnhunt]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

Seems I heard or read something about this a while back too. Sounds like a bunch of crap to me too.

[HuntingInMaine]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

My kids' school does the same thing. It is just too tramatic for a child to get a paper back with lots of red ink on it. I asked the principal about this and pointed out that it will only be a matter of time before the recommended green ink is going to cause the same "trama" when the kids get their papers back! It isn't the color, it is what is associated with it. The only way you could stop the "color shock" is if you randomly rotated through different colors throughout the year.

But then again, this is the same principal who decided this year would concentrate on not bullying and then decided the school as a whole would study pirates! LOL

I don't know who is worse, the parents or the school system!

[AaronS]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

[ QUOTE ]

The only way you could stop the "color shock" is if you randomly rotated through different colors throughout the year.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's a revelation that's going to shock some people, but the best way to stop color shock is for kids to get out of the front of the tv, gameboy, and whatever else, and STUDY AND BRING THEIR GRADES UP!

[Guest KSNimrod]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

Yep, red sure is stress inducing. Those deer I shoot leave red trails. Evidently it's the stress of all that red that kills them! :-)

[Gator]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

[ QUOTE ]

IF THESE KIDS WERE RAISED THE WAY MY GENERATION WAS RAISED THEY WOULD'NT EVEN THINK ABOUT COMPLAINING ABOUT RED INK.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now ain't that the truth!

[TreeStandBowHunter]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

[ QUOTE ]

I don't know who is worse, the parents or the school system!

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it is both . The parents are worse because you have a few NEW AGE parents who were obvisouly pampered all their life and it's the School systems faught for falling for it

Can't use red ink???....give me a break

[Norm Sauceman]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

...and people still don't understand why our public school systems $uck so bad...

[markyj987]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

I heard this story about a year ago...and am still dumfounded about it.

A kid acts like an idiot because they're hyped up on sugar and watch too much TV...we drug them.

Performance overall drops, so we go to outcome-based education. (i.e. It doesn't matter if little Johnny learns anything--as long as he feels good about himself.)

When little Johnny still struggles and gets bad grades, we blame the color of the ink because it hurts his self esteem.

It's absolutely ridiculous. Self-esteem isn't an entitlement--you earn it through accomplishment. True accomplishment is a result of working hard. Then again, maybe it's not that easy to work hard if you're drugged up on Ritalin!

Let's suppose for a moment that little Johnny instead of being a drugged up baffoon that he's a genius...works hard and gets good grades. Let's also assume that he is in Little League and practices and does all that he can to excel as a baseball player. What happens here? He's not recognized for his achievments at school or on the baseball diamond because this whole mentalit of NOT competing and not keeping score. So, it's all for naught because of the feel-good mentality. (And we wonder why kids go from Ritalin to pot to ecstacy to meth?)

Just as we're taking away the "negativity of failure" we are also negating the rewards of success in our society. Our society, in many ways, frowns upon accomplishment, envies the wealthy, and punishes success. Unfortunately, this has spread to our schools and I fear for future generations.

[johnf]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

I don't know who is worse, the parents or the school system!

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it is both . The parents are worse because you have a few NEW AGE parents who were obvisouly pampered all their life and it's the School systems faught for falling for it

Can't use red ink???....give me a break

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not just the "New Age" parents. Our whole society has taught us that "It's not my fault". Even the good Christain flolks can find a reason that thier little angel has been wronged. Even when the problem is blaring them in the face.

It's an endless cycle. The parents blame the school, the school doesn't trust the parent, the child screws up, the school tries some new way to fix the problem so the parent can't cry discrimination, new age crap doesn't work so the kid gets worse and the parents blame the school. And it all starts over again.

Our education system worked a lot better when the teachers could beat the kid for being a jerk and the parents beat the kid for getting beat by the teacher.

It's a nice politically incorrect way to correct a problem.

I was afraid of my Principal, and was never sent to him. That's good school discipline.

[markyj987]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

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That is so dumb to base a person on how they do on some standerized test!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

What do you suggest then? A test to see how little Johnny feels about himself even though he hasn't learned a darn thing? If course, the typical liberal response is that the schools need more money. In my home state, that's nothing but BS. The schools need to learn how to spend the boatload of money they already get. The teachers unions here are nothing but greedy political activists, who do not care about educating children, but fattening their pensions--pensions beyond which normal working folks will NEVER see.

Heck, I don't even disagree with the concept of teachers' unions, but in Wisconsin, I certainly think they are more harmful to the public education system than helpful.

NCLB is not perfect, but it does hold schools accountable and in turn, the schools hold parents and students accountable as well.

[johnf]

Re: OH NO - RED INK

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That is so dumb to base a person on how they do on some standerized test!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

How do you propose it's done. This is a completely impersonal, relatively non-biased way of seeing what you know.

The only way these tests are not fair is that some of the wording used uses inflections and terms used in the north east making some of the questions ambiguous down here.