When I was in fourth grade, my mom went to talk to the teacher because she wanted my teacher to change a grade. With all the spelling mistakes I had made, my mom thought the A was undeserved. The teacher told her that she should not expect me to spell properly.

My parents immediately started looking into private school.

Two things.

1. How does red ink get such a negative connotation if the parents don't teach their kids that. And if it's just because the color accompanies the errors on their papers, isn't any color goin to end up meaning the same thing?

2. This is really nothing. My mom teaches HS and has parents all the time calling pissed off because she failed students for cheating on quizzes or tests. She actually had a parent ask her if she understood that she (my mom) was ruining the students chances at getting into Duke, because she failed the kid on a Spanish I test when she caught him cheating. My mom replied very candidly that if the boy needed to cheat on a Spanish I exam, he didn't have what it takes to get into Duke to begin with and the parent should start to examine some of the other schools in the State.

---

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Here's a link to the story that talks about teachers now using the color purple when they are grading papers. I wonder how long it will be before purple becomes the next "negative" color.

Just think if the parents actually spent the time helping their kids with their homework instead of complaining about what freaking color the teacher was using maybe their kids wouldn't be so stupid and have so much red ink on their papers. Red is supposed to be negative as it says "You're Wrong". Get it right next time.

http://www.cnn.com/...re.red.ap/index.html

I had an English teacher that would grade with green felt pens. Half the time our papers would come back looking like Spock had bled to death on them.

---

_____________________________________
You're not stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic.

My kids dread me and my wife more than teachers. They have home school three times a week during the summer and they do all the work the teacher gives even if no grade will be recorded.

I love being evil.

---

customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

My wife's a teacher. Parents do truly f$ck up lots of kids. Can't use red ink... that's just the tip of the iceberg. I could never be a teacher. Would be fired within a week (or arrested for beating stupid parents.)

It's actually up to parents to decide whether to hold kids back or let them proceed on to the next grade. Failing isn't really failure anymore it seems...

"Nobody does anything wrong and it's always somebody else's fault" is the anthem of parents/kids these days it seems.

I'm absolutely horrified about what this generation of whimpy, whinny, "perfect" children will do when their parents aren't there to blame the rest of the world for them.

I'm going to go calm down a bit now.

Lehmkuhler

There is an ongoing effort to make everything and everyone soft. We don't want to make our kids feel bad, we don't want anyone to "fail", we don't keep score so we don't have winners and losers....

Kids needs learn that they there are winners and losers and that poor performance has consquences and good performance has rewards.

We sure dont want to stress our kids with red ink do we? I mean, how will that prepare them for the easy, stress-free life that awaits them?

---

_______________________________________________

I agree with everything said above. There was a thread in the regular forum a few days ago that started, as I recall, about childhood obesity. I hijacked it, and broadened it to a discussion about parents catering to their kids in general. To me, this is all connected.

This topic makes me crazy. How is it not abusive to make your kids fat, soft, uneducated, whiney, underachievers?

I have a daughter who is nine. I would no more cross her treacher than I would cross her doctor. I fully support both, and my daughter knows that I'd support her teacher in an instant if it came to that. She knows I'm probably more demanding than her teacher.

Gawd this makes me crazy.

Time magazine had a cover article on this a few months ago - it was interesting reading about the resentment teachers have for parents. I'm in a 6th grade classroom all day and I am amazed by how disrespectful the kids are - I'm all for letting kids express their feelings and opinions, but they have NO respect for adults. Alot of their parents aren't much better. They drive around town in their Hummers - driving through stop signs, talking on their cell phones, ignoring crossing guards, they complain about EVERYTHING, and are generally rude.

[reply]My kids dread me and my wife more than teachers. They have home school three times a week during the summer and they do all the work the teacher gives even if no grade will be recorded.

I love being evil.[/reply]

Never thought I would say this to you Tibbs but GOOD JOB! I wish more parents took that kind of interest in their children's education. Well done.