Australia : Seeing red over scarlet-marked homework

[Mid]

Seeing red over scarlet-marked homework
Tue Dec 9, 2008



SYDNEY (Reuters) - Teachers using red pen to mark students' work could be harming their psyche as the color is too aggressive, according to education strategies drafted by an Australian state government.

The "Good Mental Health Rocks" kit, which was distributed this month to about 30 schools in Queensland state, offers strategies such as "don't mark in red pen (which can be seen as aggressive) - use a different color."

Other tips include structuring time for peer tutoring every day, apologizing to students when necessary and asking students to conduct a "personal skills audit" where they focus on their individual strengths rather than their weaknesses.

The kit, designed to help Queensland teachers address mental health in the classroom, suggests social and emotional wellbeing has been linked to young people's schooling, among other things.

The education aid has sparked a row in parliament, with deputy opposition leader Mark McArdle calling it "kooky, loony, loopy lefty policies."

But Health Minister Stephen Robertson, whose department devised the kit, said youth suicide was a serious issue.

"If mental health professionals determine that as one of a number of strategies teachers should consider, then I'll support them every day of the week," he told reporters recently. "This is not a matter for ridicule, this is serious."

According to some Australian mental health groups, the greatest number of people with mental illness are aged between 18 and 24 years, with 14 percent of Australian children and adolescents suffering from some sort of illness.

Boys are slightly more likely to experience mental health problems than girls and depression is one of the most common conditions in young people and increases during adolescence, the website of mental health group Mindframe said.

(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

reuters.com


WTF ???

[Texpat]

Forcing children to make their beds in the morning also injures their self esteem. And anything less than perfect grades -- it's just painful. And acne, and puberty -- all the parents and teachers' fault. Our society is letting them down.

WTF is going on in this world? IMO, kids today require more discipline, attention, adherence to rules, not less. The shit started going pear-shaped when parents and teachers decided to be the kids' friends instead of their mentors and role models. Now we're left with dysfunctional retards that are far less capable of successfully striking out on their own after 12 years of school than kids 20 years ago.

[Thetyim]

Now we're left with dysfunctional retards that are far less capable of successfully striking out on their own after 12 years of school than kids 20 years ago.

Some of the kids that left school 20 years ago are today's mental health professionals

[Mid]

The shit started going pear-shaped when parents and teachers decided to be the kids' friends instead of their mentors and role models.

common ground here .

cruel to be kind

hurts me more than you

spare the rod , spoil the child

mother knew them well

[keda]

When I mark the schoolkids' homework it's always been with red, for good and bad, the comments are cushion-free, and the nasty ones usually result in improved work next time around. Unintentional, mind you, but now feeling a bit sad that I've been damaging the kids and stunting their growth, and may even have inadvertently created a serial killer. I mean, wouldn't you feel the same?

KIDS. Threading a piece of string through a ping pong ball and painting it brown is ideal for a fun game of conkers that conforms with the 1974 Health & Safety Act, section 52, subsection 11, paragraph c.

Viz tip

[withnallstoke]

According to some Australian mental health groups, the greatest number of people with mental illness are aged between 18 and 24 years, with 14 percent of Australian children and adolescents suffering from some sort of illness.

Sheeet. What percentage of the adult population aged between 18 and 24 have mental illness then? Or perhaps the percentage that do are all employed by the government doing surveys. Hope their results weren't published in red. Or underlined. Or used any capital letters.

[Texpat]

^^ You're not suggesting we allow children to handle a sewing needle, are you ...

[sabang]

What a load of bollox.

Except for in Thailand of course, where red marking pens would be considered lese' M. Plus of course you can't read yellow pens, so that saves face for the students.

[Loy Toy]

Generally the youth of today wouldn't know how to spell discipline let alone know what the word means.

When you implement new systems, and as they did regarding the management of students over 20 years ago you normally summarize the results and who in their right mind would consider that the changes have worked.

What the youth of today needs is to be taught more discipline, not be pandered and cushioned from the dreaded red ink cross and when they have made errors.

FFS who is actually running our education system.....??? It seems to me that people who have no idea and or have had no exposure to children.

[keda]

^^ You're not suggesting we allow children to handle a sewing needle, are you ...

Come now, that's patently obvious to be done under parental supervision wearing smithy gloves and welding goggles....tsk, some people!

[withnallstoke]

Duplicate sentiment as Keda

[DrivingForce]

Forcing children to make their beds in the morning also injures their self esteem. And anything less than perfect grades -- it's just painful. And acne, and puberty -- all the parents and teachers' fault. Our society is letting them down.

WTF is going on in this world? IMO, kids today require more discipline, attention, adherence to rules, not less. The shit started going pear-shaped when parents and teachers decided to be the kids' friends instead of their mentors and role models. Now we're left with dysfunctional retards that are far less capable of successfully striking out on their own after 12 years of school than kids 20 years ago.

nothing left to add, all of the comments so far state my position... it's over the top with this PC, tread lightly thinking it's like a contest to determine who can out do the other person with the most inane approach to educating and raising the worlds children..

[kingwilly]

Other tips include structuring time for peer tutoring every day, apologizing to students when necessary and asking students to conduct a "personal skills audit" where they focus on their individual strengths rather than their weakness

These ideas seem pretty good to me...

article appears to focus a little too much on the red pen thing...

[Texpat]

The problem comes when the kid leaves the soft-gloves approach of a High School he has learned to manipulate and laugh at for four years and steps into the rip-your-eyes-out environment of the real world.

The further these two environments drift from each other, the less adaptive we should expect HS graduates to be.

I don't buy this soft sell. Firm and fair seems appropriate -- unless your goal is maladjusted, unprepared, insipid softies -- but really nice kids who know the value of a hug.

If the kid did a great job on his essay don't the red marks highlight and emphasize his skill?

[kingwilly]

If the kid did a great job on his essay don't the red marks highlight and emphasize his skill?

agreed, the red pen comment is a bit crap.

[Cujo]

This has been done before but worth another read.

Born before 1980?

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's...

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because .

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day, and we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, CD's or Ipods! No cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives so much, than for our own good.

And while you are at it, share it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

The problem comes when the kid leaves the soft-gloves approach of a High School he has learned to manipulate and laugh at for four years and steps into the rip-your-eyes-out environment of the real world.

Read an intersting article a while back (lost now unfortunately) about how this generation of grads with their sense of entitlement fare in the real world workplace on entering the workforce. Sad and funny at the same time.
I had a co-worker (a fresh grad) who was almost in tears because she wasn't getting praise for her work.
I think she wanted a star on her hand.

[EmperorTud]

Born before 1980?

no personal computers

I was born in '74 and I had a computer.

And I knew guys with video game consoles, although they were rare.

[Cujo]

although they were rare.

Exactly. Don't be such a pedantic little turd.

[melvbot]

Born '72 had a computer, video games like a portable Pac Man and an Atari. A rather rose tinted "back in my day" article.

[Cujo]

I think this article was originally titled 'growing up in the seventies' which would be more like it.

[spiff]

The kit, designed to help Queensland teachers address mental health in the classroom, suggests social and emotional wellbeing has been linked to young people's schooling, among other things.

Who'd want social and emotional wellbeing for their kids? We did just fine without it and are grateful for it.

What an outrageous, loopy PC suggestion!

Bring back the cane, how else would they learn to take their place in the real world?

[Marmite the Dog]

But Health Minister Stephen Robertson, whose department devised the kit, said youth suicide was a serious issue.

"Oh no! Teacher wrote in red ink! I'm gonna kill myself!"

Twats.

[Kaviar]

It's all gone down hill since they banned the cane in school!!!!!!!!!!

[panama hat]

Simply pathetic

[Happyman]

90% of posts in this thread could be "cut and pasted" into the 'What the F*ck is happening in the uk' thread