Red!
 

The news in Australia is that they are going to ban teachers from using the color red on grading of test's and homework. Their reasoning is that the color red might be offensive and make the child feel saddened or pained. The argument here is, by taking out the color and replacing with green(can't do blue because it's seen as depressing) you take out the whole entire purpose of correction. Look at it like this, when you see your work with a bunch of red markings and a big fat F at the top it hits a lot harder then if that big F was in some other color. The color red demands attention and should be used to teach children competition and purpose. If you take that away you are teaching them to be mild, to lose their drive. So I figured I'll ask you guys about this to. What do you all think about this? Which side do you agree with, or do you not give a dam about any of this.

It shouldn't matter what color you use, I've had errors and grades marked in blue and black ink, even when it's somthing typed and printed in which the existing ink is already black.

In any case, this is just a continuation of society being full of whiny adults that think that the slightest bit of aggitation is going to turn children into suicidal wrecks that can only be stopped by 3 hours a week with a psycologist or to appear on an episode of Dr. Phil. You should be able to be as firm or as leniant as you feel you have to be so long as it gets results, but a change in color ink is like dumping blue dye into glowing green uraniam and saying it's no longer radioactive. The problems are still there, and you're an idiot for taking it any less seriously.

*buries face in palms*

Chirst almighty. I mean yeah, beating your kids probly isn't good. Yelling at them constantly isn't the greatest either. Not using red ink? Just.... /sigh

Maybe the color doesn't mean anything, maybe its from who the grade comes from that decides how you take it as a child. I still believe that the color red is good to have as an alarming color. So by removing it red will cause confusion in small child's heads.

Or, children don't care what color the grade is in.

See, these are the kind of people that make me want to beat the living crap out of. I mean, seriously, what the hell? "Offensive"? Thats bullshit.

1. Its just a stupid color.
2. I'm sure there are a lot of other ways you could "offend" a person other than using a basic color you learn in pre-school.

You could learn them that criticism not is a bad thing. Some kids go to school and when they get a bad grade and rough words from the teacher, they don't open their mouth in-front off the class and doesn't dare to write above C due to being so scared for the failure.

So i don't think that its the color red.

Some teachers in my school mark in red, some in purple, some in green. The color you use doesn't matter because if you do well in class the teachers won't put as many marks in your script.

As a student I say it's stupid. If you got a good mark that's written with red too :/ I have teachers whose correct with green, blue, black even with pencil. I think they are really bored if they came up with this idea.

I was never marked with Blue or Black since they were the two more common ink colours. Using a contrasting RED would allow you to see the grades and comments more easily. You'd think that the trauma of a failing mark would be more damaging than the colour used to print it. Why don't they just make the tests easier for their delicate children, and complain later when they grow up stupid and surrounded by bubble wrap?

Does colour have affect on how you perceive things?
Id say so...hues of red indicate stop, danger or just draw attention to things ...it tends to catch the eye naturally more so than others maybe due to its immediate contrast..or maybe because we just tend to go " Hey! RED!!" in our minds in natural response..
Or maybe its related to the fact when you bleed its red...I dont know...

Blue ink being depressing?...thats silly....

While it is true that hues of blue and green tend to be more relaxing than reds and oranges which tend to be more alarming colours...I dont think theres enough ink on the paper to do that....especially be depressive...

Is Red being offensive/alarming in marking papers?...
Maybe...but by all means that is a good thing when dealing with children ..
I mean dont get me wrong Im not saying correction should be offensive...but rather if they are alarmed by the sheer number of X's all over the paper then they should be able to realise that they should try and do better ..or if they dont get it...ask the teachers about it...

Then again this has its limits..6 yr old kid sure..red X and 0's all over a test may make them think different than if it were blue
I mean I think by teenage years it doesnt really matter if you get red ink...green....blue.....pink (actually that one is hard to read..) or purple...because by that point it should just be about why they lost the marks and trying to learn from mistakes...

Do I think the colour changing idea reduces motivations?
maybe..maybe not....Im no physiologist....

I do think its utterly absurd though...if anything the colour has a positive effect not negative...and as said before both good and bad are marked in red..so why should it matter?

I swear parents nowadays are trying to bubble their kids ...Only for the kids to hit the real world and implode from the sudden shock of this thing called 'life'...