Political fashion can hurt, even kill.(Bird's eye)

Just as we were assembling this special issue of The American Enterprise on political correctness, the Associated Press transmitted a story across the nation about the latest fashion in marking tests and homework at public schools. For generations, teachers have corrected answers and offered suggestions in red ink. "But that approach meant the kids often found their work covered in red," the story noted. And some parents objected. "Red writing, they said, was 'stressful.'" So schools have put red on the blacklist.

 
   Red has become so symbolic of negativity that some principals and 
   teachers will not touch it.... Joseph Foriska, principal of Thaddeus 
   Stevens Elementary in Pittsburgh, has instructed his teachers to 
   grade with colors featuring more "pleasant-feeling tones" so that 
   their messages do not come across as derogatory or demeaning.... 
   At Public School 188 in Manhattan, 25-year-old teacher Justin 
   Kazinark grades with purple, which has emerged as a new color of 
   choice for many educators, pen manufacturers confirm. "My generation 
   was brought up on right or wrong with no in between, and red was 
   always in your face," Kazmark stud. It's abrasive to me. Purple is 
   just a little bit more gentle." 

Toward the end of the story, we get a glimpse of the deeper issue:

 
   The disillusionment with red is part of a broader shift in 
   grading, said Vanessa Powell, a fifth-grade teacher at 
   Snowshoe Elementary School in Wasilla, Alaska. "It's taken 
   a turn from 'Here's what you need to improve on' to 'Here's what 
   you've done right,'" Powell said. 

In other words, educators have become more interested in helping students feel satisfied with their output than in prodding them to produce better work.

This is a shining example of political correctness gone silly. An exaggerated timidity about challenging students for fear of making them feel "inferior" is reducing the chances that the next generation of Americans will become competent adults. A preference for helping people "feel good about themselves" instead of becoming excellent and commanding is one classic marker of politically correct thinking.

On page 32 of this issue we talk with Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, who have written a new book on this subject. Big chunks of our educational, health care, family life, criminal justice, and mental health sectors are now coddling Americans rather than guiding and strengthening them. This does no one any good, the authors note, and often takes "victims" and victimizes them even further.