Plays Well With Others

Don’t Worry, Be Happy…

As Katie said: There’s an article on CNN.com about how teachers had to stop using red ink because of parental complaints. Apparently, red ink is “stressful”, “abrasive”, and not a “pleasant-feeling tone”. Even if the teacher writes something helpful, or even positive, the message might come across as “derogatory” or “demeaning” because of the red color.

“It’s taken a turn from ‘Here’s what you need to improve on’ to ‘Here’s what you’ve done right,”‘ Powell said. “It’s not that we’re not pointing out mistakes, it’s just that the method in which it’s delivered is more positive.”

The problem with people these days is that they’re are just too damned sensitive to everything. There are the legal groups, the parents groups, the child advocates and everyone else trying to “change” the world by restricting the way we do things. We can’t say the pledge in schools, because it infringes on a kid’s religion… we can’t serve candy snacks in school because it creates fat kids… we can’t sing happy birthday because of copyright violations. Erm. Anyone think things have gone a bit too far?

First of all, if a teacher writes a message, it doesn’t really matter what color it’s written in. If I felt even a twinge of stress from red ink, I can tell you without a moments hesistation that I got over it pretty quickly. It left no lasting scars. In fact, even though I know some of my teachers used red ink, I don’t remember who they were and don’t even remember if they were writing good or bad things. All I remember is little happy faces or whatever.

Secondly, by focusing on the positive rather than the negative, no one’s going to learn anything. If you’re constantly stroking kids ego’s, you’re just screwing them up for life later on. Someone’s going to point out something negative to these kids and they’re going to end up being suicidal. Well, come to think of it, maybe that’s why so many people are on anxiety medications these days. I’m sure there are people that need stuff like that, but you’ll never get me to believe that THAT many kids are THAT depressed. Give me a break.

The whole point of the negative feedback, more aptly known as constructive criticism is so that you know what to improve on next time. I actually appreciated when a teacher would take some time to write some notes down and let me know what to look out for next time. A grade says nothing, except that you did or didn’t do well. The feedback is where you do your real learning.

So, for the red ink… people need to just get over it. The problem is so much deeper than colored ink though. It’s about parents babying their kids and trying to vacuum seal them into this environment where nothing can get to them. “Don’t you worry, mommy will be right there to take care of it.” Ugh. When I was in school, they basically owned you. I’m talking… they had all the rights that your parent had… including taking out a paddle and whacking you with it, if they wanted to. Somewhere along the line, that ended because of this very issue. Parents didn’t want the principal beating up their kids. To an extent I can see the point. But then it started to go to far. Parents began reducing the schools power to the point that they are now just babysitters for that period when parents are working and need a place to store their kids.

This argument could go on forever, but in the end, people just need to lighten up. Kids really don’t care about ink color. Kids are pretty resilient. You tell them how something works and they basically accept it. They skin their knees and they jump up and start running all over again. Basically it’s overzealous parents that are the problem. People that want to keep all the bad in the world away from their kids. The problem is that it’s not how the real world works and if you want your kid to be prepared to deal with real world issues, you need to let them get hurt occasionally. It’s really okay… all of us managed to live through it without too much mental trauma. In fact, it made us better people in the end.

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6 Responses to 'Don’t Worry, Be Happy…'

  1. personal avatar
    Katie | 08 April 2005

    Hmm, looks like somebody didn’t LINK TO MY ENTRY even though they quoted it. WTF?


  2. personal avatar
    Greg | 08 April 2005

    Ugh… I trackbacked to you for GOD”S sake. You’re just trying to munch on my two readers. 🙂


  3. personal avatar
    Katie | 08 April 2005

    There’s no munching here bitch. 🙂

    Anyhow… the point is, you QUOTED me in your entry. Hello, you went to college. Cite your sources! Especially the stunningly impressive ones like myself. 🙂

    I just installed threaded comments on my site…


  4. personal avatar
    Greg | 08 April 2005

    Erm, yeah. Like I want anyone to know I cited YOU. Ugh. Anyhow, I thought you didn’t have to cite sources anymore.


  5. personal avatar
    Greg | 13 April 2005

    Test comment


  6. personal avatar
    Greg | 17 April 2005

    Test comment


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