Marking homework (London)

I had a reputation with my students for having a very active red pen.  

They’d get their homework back, covered in red: some were corrections, some were comments (on why a particular usage/translation was wrong), and some were my offerings of an alternative or a better version.  I often told them, by way of massaging their bruised ego, that if they made no mistakes, they were then in the wrong grade and should be in a higher grade, and that they were therefore not learning anything new.  This practically always worked.

They got so used to these red markings being an indication of how many mistakes they’d made that they’d occasionally cry out in surprise at a smiley face next to a correct or good sentence.

One of the evening students in my early days at the polytechnic, back in the 80s, was a lady in her 60s (70s??) who was very conscientious, handing in homework every week in spite of making loads of mistakes.  (Full marks for effort and attitude — it’s the trying that’s important.)  Every week, she had to leave ten minutes before the end of class to go and catch her train home (somewhere outside London).  She’d hand in her homework en route to the door, and say with a giggle and a shrug of her shoulders, “I’ll buy you a new red pen next week!”  Full marks, indeed, for attitude.

(London, 1986)