to think that school are being petty about black ink and handwriting pens

[muminthenorthwest]

DS, 9, is left handed and having trouble with smudging his work as he writes (I am LH and had the same until I worked out how to write at an angle).

have bought a left-handed, quick-drying pen for him to try out, but have been told now that he can't use it as it is blue ink, not black. FFS.

queried it (there were no black ones available) and was told that they 'have' to write in black in books.

Possibly blue would be ok for writing on walls then?

AIBU to want to have a major rant about petty, pedantic rules (with no logical reason to them) stifling creativity and individuality in children and adults alike?!

I'd have thought it better to write neatly in blue than it looking like a drunken spider trail in black. But what do I know? I'm just the parent.

Poor DS is dreading parents' evening as he thinks I'm going to throw a wobbler. It's a possibility.

Ours have to write in blue ink and the teachers mark in black. Our rules are to differentiate between anything we write on their work and their writing. Sometimes children use peer marking and it will show if it is marking done by a child or an adult. The children edit work in green so it shows if a child has acted on feedback to your marking. There is a reason for the colours in my school.

Ours is black ink only too, no biros,no fountain pens and no gel pens just those awful Beryl handwriting pens.

I think it's unfair that he's not allowed to use a black biro.
Ds3 (9) is left handed. He's still using a pencil. He's desperate to get his 'pen license', but I imagine smudging may be a problem.

Ignore them!

Tell him to use the black pen and tell the teacher not to be so sodding ridiculous.

Is there anyway that you can get different coloured refill inks ?online.

Forty odd years ago when I was in school, we had to write in pencil until the third class in the infants, then we had to use blue Biro. We were told that black Biro made our handwriting look messy. Then, in grammar school, we had to write with a fountain pen, unless it was in our rough books or in an examination.

I have always thought that teachers are congenitally weird, with major control-freakery issues.

Exactly what sweetpie said, the rules are usually set out in the marking policy as to the colour the child writes in, edits in, peer-marks in and teacher marking.
The school should be able to provide him with an appropriate pen if they are being arsey about yours. It wouldn't be a problem in my school as the children write in royal blue and I mark in green. So a blue Staiblo would be fine.

Rules is rules I'm afraid! Poor old DH had to -smudge- write with a fountain pen at school!

I'd try online and see of you can get some 'leftie' pens.

'I have always thought that teachers are congenitally weird, with major control-freakery issues.'

Not at all, I have two lovely fountain pens, one with turquoise ink and one with purple. I'm not allowed to mark with either of them.

I agree old

Put in a request for them to change the writing and marking policies as they discriminate against lefties. I'm serious, Staiblo have lovely LH pens, but they use blue ink.

I've just bought ds a stabilio right handed own. It comes in a right or left handed version & I'm sure they had black & blue ink in them.

I've just googled and can't find them in black but you can buy black refills for them.

It won't be the teachers because they will have to follow weird rules about which colours go mark in. Gone are the days when they could just pick up the nearest pen!

Do you not see why some teachers are sick to death with this sort of nonsense and folderollery? Every day I run the risk of 'Shit, wrong colour'
Don't get me on highlighters, I'll be ranting all evening.

Best to let him fit in - its only the price of a pen isn't it? Save the other pen for projects it will get used. I know what you mean as we have been through pencils, fountain pens, Berol handwriting pend blue and now finally secondary school - yeah freedom. The teachers use different colours for the marking and I (teacher) get the kids to use different colours for peer marking and different activities. You don't want the teacher feeling stressed when their marking your ds work - might
change the mark or comments.

And whoever invented the interactive white boards didn't take account of the fact that some teachers are left handed!

www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/non-smudge-pens.html
Lots of black non smudge pens including stabilio.

You can flip the controls over on the IWB though, so it suits a left-hander.

SilverApples - if I were you I'd mark with the fountain pens of your choice. As long as it shows clearly against the child's work, it really is of no consequence what colour you use. By actually going along with this proscriptive nonsense, you are encouraging the control freak who dreamed it up. What could happen? You won't get sacked! Stop putting up with this lunacy!

They tell you off and scold you and wave the marking policy at you and tell you that they'll tell OFSTED on you.
How do you think I found out that my lovely italic pens were not acceptable?

You can flip the controls over but being LH is not as simple as just doing things on the other side or with the other hand. The layout of my classroom is for a left handed teacher which no one realises until I have to stand at the other side of my IWB but there is a unit there which can't be moved! So I stand at the usual side but can't write on my board from there so either have to write right handed or kneel down to write so I don't block the view of a child.

Does your DS go to my old school? They would insist we all had to write with fountain pens, black ink. All very well but as a leftie I found fountain pens high on impossible to use. I write in that hook handed-looks awful but in fact is really comfortable-kind of way and all it achieved was four years of smudged writing and tellings off for 'sloppy presentation'. It still pisses me off all these years later. Give me a lovely cheap Biro any day!

And then you are responsible for it being minuted in a staff meeting that All Will Mark In Green Ink.
Oh yes.

Try the cultpens website, if you email them they'll recommend a few options. A Uni-ball Jetstream is worth trying (v v quick drying so good for left handers, and has an excellent clear black line). The cultpens site has them and have also seen them in Tesco.

I remember a Head of Department telling me that my preferred colour green was only allowed to be used by the Arch Bishop of Canterbury.
Seriously