Notes From The Education Underground: Red Ink Lunacy Runs Amok

Politically Incorrect?
One of the most asinine things that I have ever heard in all my experience as a teacher was when about 10 years ago my principal said to a group of teachers, "Making the bunny bleed just shows the student how much the teacher knows."

In other words, this principal did not want her teachers to use red pens when checking student work. At the time, we attributed this statement to the principal's known background as a liberal "ex-hippie," and didn't think too much of it. We continued to make the "bunny bleed" because we knew that was what the parents wanted.

Now its official. According to the The San Diego Union-Tribune, more and more teachers are abandoning the traditional red-ink pen in favor of........purple. It seems as though the politically correct viewpoint is that red ink somehow frightens the kids. Aging hippies are winning the day.

Said one teacher, "We try to be as gentle as we can and not slice children's thoughts to pieces with a red pen." Some say that purple is more "approachable" whatever that means. One "expert" stated that purple is associated with spirituality, royalty, and elegance. Bah!!!

It seems that some of the ex-hippies are still out there, only now they have become the establishment that they so loudly denounced.