The latest report from the Ed Biz is that red is out, purple is in.
“If you see a whole paper of red, it looks pretty frightening,” said Sharon Carlson, a health and physical education teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Northampton. “Purple stands out, but it doesn’t look as scary as red.”
That’s the cue pen makers and office supply superstores say they have gotten from teachers 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, a color they perceive as “friendlier” than red.
Give. Me. A. Break.
The purpose of marking up papers is to identify errors and areas for improvement. Kids should be apprehensive if they see a lot of marks on there, and red is a hard-coded danger sign for humans, so that seems perfectly proper. Switching colors isn’t going to make kids feel better about poor grades — or themselves — nor should it.
A mix of red and blue, the color purple embodies red’s sense of authority but also blue’s association with serenity, making it a less negative and more constructive color for correcting student papers, color psychologists said. Purple calls attention to itself without being too aggressive. And because the color is linked to creativity and royalty, it is also more encouraging to students.
“The concept of purple as a replacement for red is a pretty good idea,” said Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, N.J., and author of five books on color. “You soften the blow of red. Red is a bit over-the-top in its aggression.”
I may scream. Really.
I have nothing against purple, really. But this really, truly reads like someone is making a good chunk o’ money off of it.
“I do not use red,” said Robin Slipakoff, who teaches second and third grades at Mirror Lake Elementary School in Plantation, Fla. “Red has a negative connotation, and we want to promote self-confidence. I like purple. I use purple a lot.”
Sheila Hanley, who teaches reading and writing to first- and second-graders at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Randolph, said: “Red is definitely a no-no. But I don’t know if purple is in.”
I may invest in red pens. Really. I mean, if this is the top — or even a major — consideration among teachers, there’s something seriously wrong with the Ed Biz.
Red marks stand out. Red marks are visible. Red marks garner attention. Those are all good things. And if kids don’t want to see marks on their papers, pointing out areas for improvement — maybe they should be encouraged to do better on their papers, not change the colors to make the marks “friendlier.”
Red has other defenders. California high-school teacher Carol Jago, who has been working with students for more than 30 years, said she has no plans to stop using red. She said her students do not seem psychologically scarred by how she wields her pen. And if her students are mixing up “their,” “there,” and “they’re,” she wants to shock them into fixing the mistake.
“We need to be honest and forthright with students,” Jago said. “Red is honest, direct, and to the point. I’m sending the message, ‘I care about you enough to care how you present yourself to the outside world.’ ”
Amen, sister.
(via Joe Kelley)
“…we want to promote self-confidence”
Self confidence that isn’t earned…gee, think that’s where most of our problems with kids come from? Idiots.
Exactly.
I believe in encouraging self-confidence. I believe in encouraging it by teaching kids how to succeed, not by shielding them from perceiving failure.
Not that I want Katherine taught by an Ogre. But I don’t want her taught by a Teletubby, either.
I teach college students, so things are perhaps a bit different for me than they are for the folks interviewed in the articles you quoted. Visibility is important; as an instructor, I don’t want a student to be able to say they didn’t see one of my comments. For visibility, there are lots of brightly colored inks available now; red doesn’t have a monopoly there. I use whatever’s handy, including red, green, purple, orange, turquoise, etc. On typed work, even a bright blue stands out well. I do try to ensure that my comments are in a contrasting color to the ink the student has used when grading handwritten work. I also sometimes try to use colors that students cannot easily obtain so that they cannot try to change my comments or my grades after I have returned the papers.
I want students to be motivated to change their ways when they make an error. I don’t want them to be so discouraged by a sea of red on the page that they put it away and never look at it. I don’t give a rat’s ass about self-confidence, I care about students doing good work, and if using another color promotes that, for whatever reason, I’ll do it. Some students appear to be less intimidated by colors other than red; perhaps they will be more likely to read my comments carefully and learn something if they are less intimidated. That would be the kind of positive effect I desire. One student once told me she thought the red ink on her paper made it look like it was bleeding. She was evidently discouraged by red; when I used another color later in the semester, she seemed less discouraged. This is anecdotal evidence, and it doesn’t explain why students find red discouraging (perhaps just from association with problems earlier in school), but it may indicate that there is good reason for some teachers to change colors.
I think the idea that this is a top or major concern of teachers is a function of the sensationalism of the media, not a real reflection of the weight that teachers give it. Again, I’m speaking from the perspective of a college instructor; things are probably different for elementary and high school teachers. Teachers are concerned with dozens of seemingly trivial things that influence learning, including the lighting in their classrooms, seating arrangements, seemingly insignificant differences in the way things are explained, and many many others. Both sides of the debate quoted above seem kind of silly (is red more honest than any other color?), so I suspect the journalists are trying to create another crisis to sell some newspapers.
I’m certainly not insisting on red — I agree that the main point should be visibility. That said, avoiding red because it doesn’t promote self-esteem seems goofy to me — the nature of the corrections and marginalia would seem to me to be much more important than the ink color.
And, yes, I’m sure this is more of a filler story than an actual reflection of The Biggest Issue Gripping the Education Community — though the sales issues described in the article make me think it’s not a trivial made-up story, either. And the nature of the quotes above (and, yes, the pro-red one is a bit silly, too) makes me think it’s way too important an issue for the teachers interviewed.
Hmmm…
These kids will be in for a shock if they ever get inot Engineering.\
Red = change
Green = remove
Yellow = checked
Blue = Info, comment, and/or new
Perhaps we could replace those with a more relaxing taupe, mauve, pearl, and morning mist.
awww….Mauve…
Awww….Mauve…
I’m sure MauveOn.org would support us in the effort. “Bush lied! People tie-dyed!” 🙂
Purple…the color of royalty. So teacher are royal?
Or…
Swift Boaties for Taupe: unfit for Carmine;->
{snort}