[Cerek]

I agree that certain colors DO portray a subliminal message and RED has a historic use of meaning danger, warning or anger.

I once got upset at another member for a post they made in an IW Roleplay thread I started. I had created a new gaming world and this person started adding stuff to it without asking me about it first. I was upset and made a post telling him he was NOT allowed to add stuff to MY world without consulting me first. My entire post was done in RED (rather than my trademark purple) because I wanted to convey the seriousness of how I felt. It worked, he got pissed at my comments and even MORE pissed that they were all made in RED. A Mod even agreed that the red font made my comments appear more hostile - so I changed the color.

So, while there IS some validity to the complaints made, it still boils down to the parents not wanting THEIR feelings hurt. They got red marks in school and do not want their children to suffer the same feelings they had. I have to agree with the majority here and say "GET OVER IT!"

Timber has an especially valid point. We don't want to be "negative" towards children in school anymore. Advocates say we should point out what they did right, NOT what they got wrong. Well, that is fine and dandy, until they get in the REAL WORLD. Once that happens, they are going to be in for a RUDE awakening. Cause bosses ain't gonna give a CRAP whether they "hurt your feelings" or not. If you screw up, most bosses will tell you that in very BLUNT terms. The sooner kids learn that being told what they did wrong is a fact of life, the better off they will be.

I have two kids in elementary school myself. The teachers use red pencils or pens to mark their work, whether their comments are positive or negative. For myself, I think the red ink actually highlights the positive comments just as well as it does the negative. I've seen "Great Work written on papers for both of my boys, and it was nice to see a POSITIVE comment written in the same color. It highlighted the comment just as effectively AND helped to show that RED (by itself), does NOT mean "BAD"!

But like the school officials said, it is simply easier to change the color than fight the parents. You have to choose your battles, especially when you are dealing with irate (and sometimes unreasonable) parents. So it is much easier for the teachers to simply use another color than to give parents something ELSE to complain about. It is rather silly that they have to do that, but I can certainly understand why they do.