When my son was in elementary school (2nd grade if I remember correctly) I went to a parent teacher meeting armed with a story my son had written. Though it had a passing grade it was rife with spelling mistakes, none of which had been circled or underlined. When I brought it up, the teacher said that the new educational guidelines forbade correcting grammar because it would give the children, and I quote, “the red mark syndrome.” Correction marks on a paper apparently discouraged children to such an extent that they would never want to write again!
The teacher was supposed to note the words that the children had trouble with, and incorporate them into daily class work. I found this to be utterly ridiculous since there was no way one teacher could possibly bring up all the words kids are wont to misspell. I gave her the permission to “mark away,” and she seemed genuinely happy to get my o.k. She was quite certain that she was churning out a bunch of illiterates but was forced to follow the guidelines set out by the school board and their flock of psychologists.
