The Latest Woke Delusion: Grading Exams in Red is Harmful to Students

The latest reports place Catalan students at the bottom of Spain and Europe in math and reading comprehension. This is the result of a long process of deterioration in the quality of education in Catalonia. Behind this are the innovative methodologies that, driven by pedagogical lobbies, replace authority, effort, and knowledge with subjectivity, relativism, and sensations.

This pedagogical modernity that has led to school failure in Catalonia never ceases to amaze. School counselor Nieves Argibay has sparked controversy by stating in the Diario de Vigo that correcting exams with a red pen causes anxiety in students.

School counselor Nieves Argibay has sparked controversy by stating in the Diario de Vigo that correcting exams with a red pen causes anxiety in students.

This expert recommends that teachers "correct in the most constructive way possible." Not only point out what is wrong, she adds, but also emphasize what has been done well. She also suggests avoiding expressions like "you have no idea," and replacing them with things like: "keep it up, very good reflection."

Regarding the red color, she warns of the "emotional impact" it can have on the student, and recommends using other colors." She states that adolescence "is already a very delicate stage to subject students to more pressure."

Debate on the Way to Correct

The Catalan broadcaster RAC1 has echoed the interview and consulted psychologist Cristina Martínez. She agrees that it is necessary to reinforce the student's successes, "valuing the effort so that they have more desire and motivation."

She also believes that "it's better to use a green pen to reinforce positive behaviors, instead of the red one that is associated with punishment." In her own words, "pointing out errors displeases the ego and causes students to block and disconnect."

RAC1 has also consulted retired teacher Antoni Dalmases, who has offered a critical counterpoint to modern pedagogical theories.

He has accused these "psychopedagogues" of having a trauma with discipline, and labels them as "people without criteria." He claims they hide in sterile debates like the color of the pen "to avoid all the problems that education has." For him, not accepting correction "is to act wildly," because it is necessary to teach the ignorant what they do wrong so they can learn.

"Correcting is not punishing," he reiterates, and that's why he corrected with a red pen and meticulously. He warns of the big problem with modern methodologies, which is that they don't teach students to manage frustration. "If we don't teach them to accept when they fail, what kind of monsters are we creating," he exclaims.