Bill, I would have to use my red pen on your essay. I would bracket the last three paragraphs with my red pen and query their relevance in an essay on class room teaching methods.

As far as the red pen is concerned I would have thought it is the message written in red that would have the potential to impact on the student’s self esteem not the red pen itself, as Romany has pointed out.

I am in contact with children from a broad range of age groups and different schools and from what I have seen and been told sometimes teachers will abuse their position of power and use sarcasm with students. Most teachers would not dream of using sarcasm but the few (probably very few) who do can have a deep negative impact on a student. These teachers perhaps do not realise the importance of their presence in a child’s life and probably underestimate the impact of such a comment, which they might have made out of frustration or misconception. Just one sarcastic, or deliberately hurtful, remark by a teacher can stay with a child for years.

However, asking teachers to teach without pointing out to their students what their mistakes are seems like an oxymoron and would surely cause confusion in the minds of young learners. A child experiences joy and a sense of achievement when they eventually overcome a mistake and get the correct answer. The sense of elation at overcoming a mistake, now marked correct with a red pen, is enhanced because of their previous disappointment. This is surely good for their self esteem.

The only point worth making from this post, designed as a furtive attempt to refute evolution, is that kids need to learn to fail. It's one of the things that build character. Shielding children from failure merely makes them unprepared for the world outside, with (as previous comments have said) a very high opinion of themselves.

As someone who has taught at university, the extremely poor english and maths made the first year a waste, as we had to make sure the kids has the required basic skills before attempting to do anything more advanced than high-school level work.

Yes to child porn (just re classify it art), yes to perversion (just call it choice) yes to rebellion (just call it democratic right), yes to drugs, yes to kill the unborn (just call it terminate pregnancy), yes to unfaithfulness, yes to dead Buddha, yes to Mohammed, yes to Mammon, yes to earth worshiping, yes yes yes but NO to the Only One who can cleanse our filthy hearts and cause us to take some responsibility in life. Parents ands teachers are to gutless to say no because often they are so enslaved themselves that they can't say no. They can't say no to immorality because they just have to have that porn fix, they can't say no to drugs because they want to indulge themselves, they can't say no to rebellion because the kids have modeled it from them. The red pen only strikes out the very One who can change hearts and give eternal life. No wonder the devil and his workers despise Him so much.

Geez Runner, it must be a terrible burden for you to have to slog through life in this miserable, depraved society. Chin up old son. You don't want to appear ungrateful for the life your maker gave you.

OK Runner - I'll bite. The only one of your 'Yesses' which might apply to me is earth-worshipping - I am very fond our planet and all the things that came to be on it through glorious happenstance (AKA evolution) - but I do say 'No' to an imaginary friend and I certainly don't have a filthy heart. I thought you lot were meant to love thy neighbour as thyself and do unto others as you would wish to have done unto yourself. How does your vitriolic abuse fit into that paradigm?

Runner, have you been at the altar wine again!