csua.org/u/8rv -> www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/08/23/harshness_of_red_marks_has_students_seeing_purple/
K-12 Some psychologists and teachers say purple ink is less intimidating than red on a corrected school paper. Some psychologists and teachers say purple ink is less intimidating than red on a corrected school paper.
The Boston Globe Harshness of red marks has students seeing purple By Naomi Aoki, Globe Staff | August 23, 2004 When it comes to correcting papers and grading tests, purple is emerging as the new red. ADVERTISEMENT "If you see a whole paper of red, it looks pretty frightening," said Sharon Carlson, a health and physical education teacher at John F Kennedy Middle School in Northampton. "Purple stands out, but it doesn't look as scary as red." That's the cue pen makers and office supply superstores say they have gotten from teachers as the $15 billion back-to-school retail season kicks off. They say focus groups and conversations with teachers have led them to conclude that a growing number of the nation's educators are switching to purple, a color they perceive as "friendlier" than red. As a result, Paper Mate introduced purple to its assortment of blue, red, and green X-Tend pens and increased distribution of existing purple pens this school year. He said purple will now be a standard color in all its new product lines. Office superstores such as Staples and OfficeMax also are making a splash with purple pens, stocking more of them, adding purple to multicolor packs, and selling all-purple packs. By comparison, Staples did not stock any exclusively purple pen packs last year and it hardly had any purple pens in its stores two years ago, said Robert George, the Framingham chain's senior vice president of general merchandise. Now, he said, sales of purple pens are growing at a faster clip than pen sales overall. A mix of red and blue, the color purple embodies red's sense of authority but also blue's association with serenity, making it a less negative and more constructive color for correcting student papers, color psychologists said. Purple calls attention to itself without being too aggressive. And because the color is linked to creativity and royalty, it is also more encouraging to students. For office supply stores, color and fashion trends spell opportunity and risk. The trends allow them to freshen up staid old categories such as pens and markers, fueling sales. But getting a trend wrong -- betting on purple pens when teachers and students are buying green, for example -- can cost them sales during a critical retail period. Red's legacy as the color used in correcting papers and marking mistakes goes back to the 1700s, the era of the quill pen. In those days, red ink was used by clerks and accountants to correct ledgers.
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