This will be short, so pause your Super Bowl pre-game show for a few minutes and soak this in.

I’ve been reading essays entitled “My Writing Experience” written by my ENGL 111 students at Ivy Tech.  Overwhelmingly, these students (and presumably millions more like them throughout time and space) have remembered those teachers who encouraged their writing.  Sure, some have terrifying memories of “bad” teachers who never appeared to take an interest in the student’s writing; however, more often than not, these essays include memories of favorite teachers.  os

Enter–the Power of the Red Pen

Most of the people reading this had at least one teacher who must have had banked on the Red Ink industry to thrive indefinitely.  One can imagine this curmudgeonly old educator creepily stalking the Back to School aisles long before the children do and emptying bins or entire sections of red Bics.  “These are for me,” they might have uttered under their breath.  “I shall correct with this mighty shade of blood!”

The time has come for teachers to stop this practice.  I’m sorry, Bic, but you need to put your capitalistic minds away from red pen profits and toward the old idea that “schools are actually designed to create positive-thinking people.”  That quote is entirely made up by this author, but I hope you get my point.  Even the most inspiring comments are often disregarded because they appeared in crimson.  The essay becomes a crime scene to the students.

If Wal-Mart is willing to amend its ammunition sales policy, red pen manufacturers can suspend putting detrimental tools in the hands of the world’s teachers.

Just a thought.  Now go enjoy sports!  #merica