> > > Witness the recent craziness in using purple markers to score tests
> > > instead of red ink, because red is too "frightening", and the belief
by
> > > many that it's not important what you get on a test, but that the
> > > attempt was good enough.
> > >
> >
http://www.boston.com/news/education...seeing_purple/
> >
> > That is not done everywhere. Also doubt if purple score markers
seriously
> > affects performance of students. (see above statement of global
warming).
>
> It's done in enough places for retail outlets to start stocking more
> purple markers!!
>
> Did you have private schools in the Netherlands?

They do have them, but where I grew up most kids went to public schools
unless the parents had specific religious convictions (Catholic, mostly).

I think by and large we agree that something needs to change. To shove it
into the shoes of left or right doesn't fix it, though. The problem has been
here with both extremes in power.