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PC again !
TAMPA - The traditional red grading pen could be headed for the same fate as Trapper Keepers and ``Dukes of Hazzard'' lunchboxes.
Universities are encouraging education majors to mark papers in something other than red because of the color's association with aggression and anxiety. They can use a fun purple instead. Or a calm blue.
The trend is prompting production changes at pen-producing giant Paper Mate and eye-rolling from observers who say young Americans are getting soft.
Janet Booth, a teacher at Tampa's Lee Elementary, witnessed the transition from red pens. When she started teaching 30 years ago, they were a standard supply. Booth traded hers in for black ink and pencils seven years ago.
``As a student, the first thing you want to do when you see those red marks is quit,'' she said.
Gina Almerico, assistant professor of education at the University of Tampa, advises her students to not use red pens in the classroom so children aren't discouraged.
School psychologists say the real impetus for change is the message associated with the red pen marks.
``The red pen has bad associations with papers coming back bleeding with corrections,'' said Lizette Alexander, Hillsborough County school district's supervisor of school psychology. Alexander said teachers have to mark mistakes, but they should focus more on what's right in the assignment, not what's wrong.
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If you dont focus on whats wrong how do you learn?
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