• At Fairway Middle School in Norwich, England, students are now required to secure the permission of their intended victim before throwing a snowball; any student launching a surprise attack will be subject to disciplinary measures. One National Union of Teachers official deemed the move "sensible" in this litigious age. You may be wondering what could come next: Will teachers have to get permission before they can flunk a student? Well, you're close. To spare the fragile egos of their charges, teachers at Uplands Manor Primary School in England have been ordered to begin using green, rather than red, ink to grade papers. "The red pen has nega-tive connotations," explained one administrator, "and can be seen as a negative approach to improving pupils' work."

please tell me that this is another of your joke threads Arvon, pretty please!!

<font color="#ffccff">Sounds pretty typical to me, knowing that such silly ideas are common place in the Maryland School system. </font>

Yeah, that'll prepare them for the real world.

Look, you cannot spare the emotions of students. The world doesn't work that way. If folks don't have the chip knocked off their shoulders early in life they turn into namby-pamby litigious twits.

I cannot tell you how much red ink gets put on my papers. One thing any student of writing needs to get over very quickly is the attachment to their words. It's an arrogance rooted in the process of creating something that you think your turn of the phrase or statement of the problem or way to solve the equation are best. But, in almost every instance, you are wrong. ;)

I'll tell you this: you will not be prepared for professional life if you cannot handle being told how much you suck ass several times every day. ;)

Yeah those red markers are pretty condescending. I have no clue about schools in Maryland but if this is standard practise in their school system there´s nothing left to say but " :rolleyes: Timber, I don´t think that telling students they suck will improve them much though. Let´s leave that privilege to parents. [img]graemlins/blueblink.gif[/img] LOL! "Creative critiscism" is of course needed. Here´s what you did wrong and why it is wrong.

Hello Arvon, can I throw a snow ball at you? j/k :D

Of course, Willow. I'm not advocating those evil mean schoolteachers depicted in Monty Python humor and Pink Floyd's The Wall. But coddling occurs much too often. And red is just so- final. ;)

*prepares a whole bunch of snowball's*

It's kind of idiotic if you ask me (if it's true ofcourse ;) )