There's been a lot of debate over the years about the possible adverse effects of television on children. A recent study suggests that viewing lots of sexual activity on TV prods sexual exploration in children. The study jives with common sense and my intuitions, but Ill hold off on using it as a rallying cry for less must on TV because I haven't yet read the study for myself to see if the statistics are trustworthy.
Here’s an article about reaction to teachers dropping red correcting pens in favor
of purple ones.
According to the teacher, red may be a startling color, but the important thing is that it gets results. Jago notes, just as a red stop sign is the best way to get drivers to pay attention to a potentially dangerous intersection, making red marks on a pupil’s paper is the best way to get the student’s attention focused on a learning or comprehension problem that needs to be corrected.
Would red marks on a paper or test frighten your child? Would
he/she be scarred for life? Well, thanks to some pseudoscience that’s growing in
popularity, your kids (and mine) probably won’t be subjected to such “frightening”
corrections. It seems purple is the new grading color of choice.
“If you see a whole paper of red, it looks pretty frightening. Purple stands out, but it doesn’t look as scary as red. ” – Sharon Carlson, a health and physical education teacher
I have nothing against purple. In fact, it’s my favorite color. Then again, I don’t have anything against red, either, at least as the color of grading pens. On the whole, I think this pen color issue is nonsense. Heaven forbid we scare a kid into doing better next time! A little bit of negative reinforcement can be a good thing.
On the other hand, there is some substance to studies of psychological responses to color. For instance, green is a dominant color in hospitals because it is a soothing color. Red can be an a aggressive color. Bright, hot colors inspire aggressive thoughts. Cool colors are soothing.
I still think the pen switch is a waste of time, thought, and energy, though. Instead of worrying about Americans falling behind the rest of the industrialized world in education, particularly in sciences, we’re trying to soften the blow of failure. Instead of wondering why the kids make so many mistakes – and fail to learn from them – we’re color coordinating marks of their inadequacy with fuzzy feel-good quackery.
Suddenly, I have the urge to reread The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis.
The classes I’ve taken in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience led me to believe that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis had been discredited. It seems, however, that research of a similar vein has been published. Maybe there’s something to the idea after all.
Web Addiction Gets Conscripts Out of Army
HELSINKI (Reuters) – A number of Finnish conscripts have been excused their full term of military service because they are addicted to the Internet, the Finnish Defense Forces said Tuesday.
If there’s ever a draft, I’ll have to try this excuse. 😉