Thanks to the socialists, they are going away too.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,131584,00.html

PANSIES!hose

An F is an F, but failure seems so much friendlier when it comes in purple.

A growing number of the nation’s educators are stocking up on purple pens (search) for grading papers and passing on the traditional red, which they say can be intimidating and damaging to a student’s self-confidence.

"Teaching should always be a positive practice. Red seems to stand out in such a negative way," said Dorothy Porteus, school support specialist with the New York Charter Schools Association (search). “Little guys internalize the red and it doesn’t make them feel good.”

Porteus, who taught elementary school for 20 years, said a teacher should coach kids to do their best, not scare them into thinking they’ll never be good enough. She equates using red ink with drawing a frowning face on a student’s work.

"They put all this effort into something and by marking it up with red, in some ways it is like tearing their hard work to shreds,” she said. “They look at the red and think the teacher is upset with them, and this greatly influences their attempt to do their next paper.”


Critics of the move toward a kinder, gentler color say kids have lived with red ink for decades and aren’t helped by teachers going easy on them.

Michael Barone, author of "Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future," (search) said the push for purple is an example of American teachers going soft on students.

"This is ridiculous, because the only reason we associate red with bad in a classroom atmosphere is because that is the color that has been used to correct papers for decades,” he said. “If teachers now switch to purple, in time purple will become negative, and then what?”

According to Barone, young people today exist in a "soft" culture, which emphasizes self-esteem and protects them from the realities of adult life

Some parents, too, argue that changing the color of an F doesn’t alter its meaning, and if it gets the student’s attention, it has achieved its purpose.

Keishla Erdelyi, whose daughter Kylie is entering the fifth grade this fall, says the most important thing is for her daughter to know what mistakes she made on a test or essay.

“It really doesn’t matter what color the ink is, it’s just the grade itself,” said Erdelyi. “She’s aware of what her grade is, if it’s good or bad. No matter what the color, she is upset with herself if she gets a bad grade.”

But Porteus isn’t alone in this purple approach to marking papers. The retreat from red is even affecting some pen distributors’ fall color scheme. Barry Calpino, Paper Mate's (search) vice president and general manager, estimated that the company boosted production of purple pens by at least 10 percent.

Office supply superstores are also getting the signal as the $15 billion back-to-school retail season kicks off. They say focus groups and conversations with teachers have led them to conclude that a growing number of the nation’s educators are switching to purple because it is not as intimidating as red. Staples (search) and OfficeMax (search) are adding purple to multicolor packs and selling all-purple packs.

Nevertheless, critics warn a purple reign is pointless.

“Children can figure out if they’re being corrected even if they’re not being corrected in red ink or red pencil,” Douglas Sears, Dean of Boston University School of Education, told FOX News. “They know when they’re being criticized, and by the way, they should be criticized when they’re not spelling or punctuating correctly.”

Still, Porteus stresses that educators should draw attention to the progress students make rather than their downfalls.

"Highlight the good and students will work harder," she said. "Some educators think if you punish the kid it will make them do better. It just doesn’t work that way."

This is SO 2 weeks ago............


dupe.  IBTL

your kidding right?

Quoted: your kidding right?

Nope.
www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=267144

Simpsons did it!

eye bee tea elle

Yeah...the color purple is related to what sexual preference?

Quoted: Yeah...the color purple is related to what sexual preference?

So what are they trying to say... "Your a fag and a failure."

So, have these morons ever stopped to consider that once the color purple becomes associated with an "F" that it will have the same effect as red?

No, I do not remember red "F"s on school papers.  I was a straight A student.  

AJNTSA.... yep... this is about a month old or so.

Don't worry, we won't give you any red marks on your record.  Only purple, because it's less scary.  mmmmkay?

Quoted: All my teachers used red for all grades.  A trhough F.

+1

My teachers used whatever color pen or pencil they had at the time. Mostly red or black or blue.

How timely. I was up until the wee hours grading homework for a class I'm teaching. I went through about a gallon of red ink. You should have heard the groans this morning. I doubt they would have been any less disgusted by seeing their papers covered with purple ink, frankly. Maybe I'll take a poll. Heh.

Hey, I don't like bleeding all over a paper any more than the students enjoy seeing their work bled upon. I kind of take poor homework performance personally, as a sign that I'm not being an effective lecturer. So following the shock of the bloodletting, we worked all of the problems through in class today. I offered them all the chance to rework the assignment in its entirety to be re-graded for full credit. I hope they all take advantage of the offer. I want them to get the material. I do not assign homework just for my own personal gratification. I work all the problems, too.

Civil Engineering Surveying. However, as many here at ARFCOM may lament, I am a Grammar Nazi. I give no quarter to spelling or grammar errors on assignments. Actually, the biggest trap (Wedge1082, where are you?) that my students are falling into right now is the old significant figures problem. I sure hope they get a handle on the topic before the first exam.

This is just a fad, wait a year and it will be back to good ole red.