Teacher Pen Chaos!

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
BSea

BSea

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
4,628
Location
Little Rock, Arkansas
Since I'm pretty new to pen turning, one of my 1st pens was a teacher pen for my daughter who's in her 1st year of teaching. She teaches 3rd grade, and I guess that's the age where they start using pens. Well, all of her students thought the pen was really cool.:cool: Then about a week later, she kept finding pieces of cheap pens all over the classroom. :question:

It turns out that the kids were making their own double sided pens from cheap bics & other brands. Apparently there have been several failed attempts.

So in a few days, I'm sure she'll get some calls from parents wondering why their "Little Darlings" have a bunch of broken pens in their backpacks.:eek:
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
I gave one of those to who is a grade school teacher. She told me her school system would not let the teachers put a RED F on a paper because it affects their SELF ESTEEM.
I told her that if a kid makes and F he/she don't have any self esteem to start with. JMO
 
Dudley Young said:
I gave one of those to who is a grade school teacher. She told me her school system would not let the teachers put a RED F on a paper because it affects their SELF ESTEEM.
I told her that if a kid makes and F he/she don't have any self esteem to start with. JMO
Click to expand...
I have had the same thing told to me but not just F's but any comments. We all got red on our papers way back when I was in school & we survived. But I did find the teacher some green refills. Green is okay. In a few years then green will be banned. Scary
 
Dudley Young said:
I gave one of those to who is a grade school teacher. She told me her school system would not let the teachers put a RED F on a paper because it affects their SELF ESTEEM.
I told her that if a kid makes and F he/she don't have any self esteem to start with. JMO
Click to expand...


I've made a few of these pens for teacher friends of mine. It's the same thing first thing he said was, no red ink right?
 
Dudley Young said:
I gave one of those to who is a grade school teacher. She told me her school system would not let the teachers put a RED F on a paper because it affects their SELF ESTEEM.
I told her that if a kid makes and F he/she don't have any self esteem to start with. JMO
Click to expand...

Good for you! All this sugar coating and pampering is screwing up future generations. The way things are going, a time out will be considered child abuse in 20 years. Spoil the child and spare the rod has gone way too far. :mad:
 
When I was in need of 'guidance' anyone older than the child was expected to apply corrective measures at the time and point of infraction. My only prayer was that they would not tell my Dad that they were required to bust my but, because then Dad was required to bust it again for having embarrassed him in public. My ego survived just fine and so did my back sides, sore but intact. Our children today need the same.

Did you her about the 8 yer old in Colorado, I believe, that was pepper sprayed because he held a sharp piece of wood he had torn from the school wall and was trying to stick it in the police? Guess who is in trouble!
Charles
 
Last edited:
Yea they have been playing the video nonstop here. Not only did he have the piece of wood but he was saying he was going to kill everyone. Where and how did we get to this place in time. Seriously I work with a lot of kids and for the most part they are good kids but the media does promote the bad apples and also always play the poor poor me card. It is never thier fault.


ctubbs said:
When I was in need of 'guidance' anyone older than the child was expected to apply corrective measures at the time and point of infraction. My only prayer was that they would not tell my Dad that they were required to bust my but, because then Dad was required to bust it again for having embarrassed him in public. My ego survived just fine and so did my back sides, sore but intact. Our children today need the same.

Did you her about the 8 yer old in Colorado, I believe, that was pepper sprayed because he held a sharp piece of wood he had torn from the school wall and was trying to stick it in the police? Guess who is in trouble!
Charles
Click to expand...
 
Edward Cypher said:
Where and how did we get to this place in time.
Click to expand...

Because we are expected to teach kids that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it. So no failing grades or keeping score at youth games, as bad grades/scores may hurt Little Tommy's feelings. This in no way prepares kids for real life because your boss will not give you a promotion just because someone else gets one.

When a child answers a question wrong, teachers can no longer SAY it is wrong, but that the child 'got the correct answer for different question.'.

Get in trouble? It's the teacher's fault. Make bad grades? It's the teacher's fault. Punch your classmate in the nose? He shouldn't have made you mad. Get in a fight? It's the school's fault. Everything is someone else's fault. Responsibility, respect, and accountability are apparently obsolete dinosaurs from a bygone age.

Here is what we're teaching kids today:
-Misbehave, get in trouble, or fail? It's someone else's fault.
-You deserve a reward, whether you do well or not.
-You always get another chance.
-If you're bad enough, people will give you a reward when you're good later.
-The military is inherently bad, because all violence is always bad.
-Punishment for offensive behavior is detrimental to future behavior.
-If someone tries to hurt you, don't defend yourself. Tell an adult.
-If you don't get what you want, pitch a fit (as demonstrated by Wisconsin democrat senators and teachers)
 
Last edited:
I don't think there is anything wrong with using a red pen to comment on papers, in fact i wish some of my teacher had used red rather than blue or black because it stands out better on the page when they are helping you revise a paper.

and Grim I agree with you 100%.
 
The Color Red

I think that teacher's pen kits now come (from some sources) with both green and red refills to go along with the black. So you can match the school district. "Red" has a stigma attached....of course that is simpley Bull Puckey...when I was in school all of the teachers markups were in red including the checks they used to indicate the correct answer.

The red/green/violet(I know of one school district where they use violet) relates to all political correctness -- it is just flat stupid, it is a thinly disguised attempt at mind control. Big Brother at work.
 
I work for the largest high school district in the country, (over 17 high schools, serving 35,000+ students) and I have never been told not to grade in red, although I'm sure that there are plenty of teachers who have been. This feeling of protecting the "self-esteem" has definitely gone too far.
 
You know, my boss has no problem bleeding all over stuff with a red pen. Heck, I bleed all over stuff of the people I supervise all the time with red pen and you know what? None of us have any problems with self esteem and whats more, the product that goes out the door (I am in engineering so our product is specs and drawings) is better for it. Kids need to learn that a mistake is something you learn from, something nobody is immune too and not tied to your self-esteme.
 
I'm a teacher and a coach. I have been told that red is not preferred, but never told not to use it. The one that gets me more than anything is the youth leagues where EVERY kid gets a trophy!!! I busted my but so I could get a trophy when i was playing and now they can go oh-fer and get one!
 
CabinetMaker said:
If the answer to a question is wrong, does it really make any difference what color it is marked wrong in?
Click to expand...

The short answer is YES . Red is the color that draws the eye first. The best seen car, the one that draws the attention first is the red one. It may not be first sold, but it will draw the buyer onto the lot. Most fire equipment is red for a reason. they tried that pukey green for a while, but it was invisible.

Marking an error in red makes it stand out, highly visible, easy to find. Marked in black or blue and it vanishes. Red is the locator. It says STOP! Green is good also but it says GO, do not stop, keep right on. Yes RED is the color. Nothing else works as well, nothing.
Charles
 
The sad thing is the people who decide this take no input from the people it effects. My teachers grade most of my papers in red. My self esteem has not suffered at all, and I sometimes had difficulty figuring out what they wrote when they didn't use red because it blended in with what I wrote.
 
Grim Spirit said:
Edward Cypher said:
Where and how did we get to this place in time.
Click to expand...

Because we are expected to teach kids that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it. So no failing grades or keeping score at youth games, as bad grades/scores may hurt Little Tommy's feelings. This in no way prepares kids for real life because your boss will not give you a promotion just because someone else gets one.

When a child answers a question wrong, teachers can no longer SAY it is wrong, but that the child 'got the correct answer for different question.'.

Get in trouble? It's the teacher's fault. Make bad grades? It's the teacher's fault. Punch your classmate in the nose? He shouldn't have made you mad. Get in a fight? It's the school's fault. Everything is someone else's fault. Responsibility, respect, and accountability are apparently obsolete dinosaurs from a bygone age.

Here is what we're teaching kids today:
-Misbehave, get in trouble, or fail? It's someone else's fault.
-You deserve a reward, whether you do well or not.
-You always get another chance.
-If you're bad enough, people will give you a reward when you're good later.
-The military is inherently bad, because all violence is always bad.
-Punishment for offensive behavior is detrimental to future behavior.
-If someone tries to hurt you, don't defend yourself. Tell an adult.
-If you don't get what you want, pitch a fit (as demonstrated by Wisconsin democrat senators and teachers)
Click to expand...
The other thing that is being taught is not to think independently Take what ever the school system is teaching and do not question. One of the "hats" I wear at the museum I work for is educator & I am an 18th Century re-enactor. A couple of years ago a friend came to me with a question. His 6th grade son was given an assignment to write a paper from the view point & using the language of the early 1800's He used the word Indians instead of Native American & got a D on the paper. When he complained that he wrote using the language of the times as instructed he was told that it was against school policy to use "Indians" & the principal backed the teacher. What are we coming to?
 
I personally don't see this as being that big of a problem...I have been a teacher for a long time and this coddling disappears at the higher levels. There is high accountability in high school these days.

I have never been a big fan of giving kids that lose trophies. I have coached MS and HS sports for a long time and the buck stops before they get to me in those grades.

Grub
 
When I started this thread, it wasn't meant to be a rant on the "Younger Generation". I just thought it was just an amusing story based on a pen. Now I agree with most here that think it's silly not to use a red pen. And there are times I think that we as a society go way overboard on making kids feel good about themselves. But when you get right down to it, I'll bet most of our Grandfathers also thought we were being coddled a bit too much. But I think that too is an attitude of the "Older Generation". And according to my wife, now that I've reached 55, I'm supposed to consider myself part of that generation. Where she got that I have no idea.:confused:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom