I've posted on the absolute stupidity going on in the schools before - I just let loose with a rant on why not having PC's isn't the problem, in fact. So imagine my mood when I ran across the latest batch of stupidity: it's the red pens that are the problem:

At Daniels Farm Elementary School in Trumbull, Connecticut, Karwoski's teachers grade papers by giving examples of better answers for those students who make mistakes. But that approach meant the kids often found their work covered in red, the color that teachers long have used to grade work.

Parents objected. Red writing, they said, was "stressful." The principal said teachers were just giving constructive advice and the color of ink used to convey that message should not matter. But some parents could not let it go.

So the school put red on the blacklist. Blue and other colors are in.

Oh my god. You know what the proper answer is for those parents? A few whacks across the chops with a clue by four, that's what. The problem isn't the color, it's the low grades. Either the parents aren't valuing education, the school isn't teaching anything, or - more likely - it's both.

The principal in question should be fired on the spot for going along with this idea. She's clearly not smart enough to be a principal; she may not be bright enough to be a doorstop. And lest you think that Karwoski is an isolated outpost of lunacy, there's this:

In many other schools, it's black and white when it comes to red. The color has become so symbolic of negativity that some principals and teachers will not touch it. "You could hold up a paper that says 'Great work!' and it won't even matter if it's written in red," said Joseph Foriska, principal of Thaddeus Stevens Elementary in Pittsburgh.

What kind of lame morons are we hiring to work in education these days? Yes, I know that there are good solid people in the teaching profession - my daughter has had a few. She's also had a few complete lamers, like her second grade math teacher. What really irritates me is that the good people seem to be getting crowded out by a group of "self esteem uber alles" types who can't locate the state they're teaching in on a map. What bothers me is seeing math only get taught three days a week, because we have to have reading and english. What bothers me is every other tech blogger thinking that more PC's in the classroom will bring salvation, while they studiously fail to notice the calculator use in first grade that prevents the acquisition of basic math skills. What bothers me is that the schools don't cover the history that brought this country (i.e., the one I live in) to its present position - American and European, primarily - and instead spend a disproportionate time on the history of the rest of the world which - to be really, really blunt - is just less relevent at the middle school and high school level. Unless you goal is to end up with a hopelessly uninformed citizen who won't have any idea how the system of government they live under evolved. I'm all in favor of learning as much about the world as possible - I'd just be happier if they'd move from the inside of the circle out, rather than from the outside in.

If you think history is being taught, just find a few 20 somethings and ask them to place the civil war within 10 years, or the revolution, or WWI. Then get more depressed by seeing how much of the times table they know...

But wait! There's more stupidity where this came from. It only gets worse:

"My generation was brought up on right or wrong with no in between, and red was always in your face," Kazmark said. "It's abrasive to me. Purple is just a little bit more gentle. Part of my job is to be attuned to what kids respond to, and red is not one of those colors."

Someone should ask that puzzlewit how he ever managed to grow up and get a job with his precious self esteem damaged by that gosh awful focus on right and wrong. You know what? Kids don't have a problem with red. In my experience, they have no problem with being shown right and wrong - it's the over-protective parents and the weak willed teachers and principals that have a problem. Which shows the way to a solution - parents who just suck it up and let their kids learn from their mistakes, and teachers and principals who have an actual backbone.

The blasted article just kept getting dumber as it went down too:

"It's taken a turn from 'Here's what you need to improve on' to 'Here's what you've done right,"' Powell said. "It's not that we're not pointing out mistakes, it's just that the method in which it's delivered is more positive." Her students, she said, probably would tune out red because they are so used to it. So she grades with whatever color -- turquoise blue, hot pink, lime green -- appeals to them.

That is a sound approach, said Leatrice Eiseman, a color specialist with a background in psychology who has written several books on the ties between colors and communication. "The human eye is notoriously fickle and is always searching for something new to look at it," she said. "If you use a color that has long been used in a traditional way, you can lose people's attention, especially if they have a history of a lot of red marks on their papers."

Oh really? Well gosh, let's change the traffic lights randomly then - the human eye being fickle and all. Where do they find people with these ideas? And heck - this is being reported by a some AP staffer - were they utterly incapable of thought? Was it just too hard to bring up counter-examples, like traffic lights? Or to ask how the previous 10 or 20 generations of kids ever managed to get by with red marks on their papers? And people wonder why I have such a low level of regard for the press...