Correct the way you correct

I have never been tired of telling students that using a sensible wooden pencil will improve their finger grip and motor skills.

In my long career in the teaching profession, I have always encouraged my students to use a pencil in my classes. I have never been tired of telling them that using a sensible wooden pencil will improve their finger grip and motor skills. If they happen to make mistakes, they could always erase them and rewrite them correctly instead of overwriting or scratching out their error. This will make their work appear neater. Thus, writing may slow them down for a while but will eventually improve their handwriting and presentation. Soon, this practice will become a habit and reflect on their personalities. For, is not one’s hand a mirror to one’s psyche?

My students, mostly young adults, found this instruction to be absurd. After all, they had been using pens to write with ever since their fifth grade. Why on earth would they return to using the humble pencil? However, some of them would decide to experiment with the idea and either keep it or junk it as they thought fit. Quite a few of them who outgrew my services have come back to share that they still use the pencil as much as possible.

There have been occasions when I have corrected printouts of scripts, presentations, names lists, mark lists, reservation lists, vaccination lists, et al with graphite stumps. Some of the recipients of these documents have not been happy with my pencil mania, and there are others who have furtively erased the errors that had been circled so that they would not be seen in a bad light. Perhaps they forgot that an error would become a mistake if they did not correct it.

The pencil eraser duo can make a completed crossword puzzle, Sudoku, mazes, anagrams, and such activities look flawless. Essential yet temporary markings on walls, cloth, paper, and other such surfaces are best made with the said writer. Some of the finest pieces of art fall under the genre of
pencil sketches. The latest smart phones have been designed to use the stylus, the electronic kin of the pencil, pretty much for the same purpose. The list can go on.

A recent video on social media shows a young teacher asking her senior why she was correcting the notebooks of her students using a light green pencil. In reply, the older woman tells her that she does not like to use red ink as teachers generally do because she believes in correcting mistakes and not pointing them out loudly by using red ink.

A lot of discussion revolved around this topic within the teaching fraternity. It was heartily appreciated and acknowledged for its empathetic approach to reaching out to sensitive young minds. The teachers dispersed and went about their daily routine—classes, corrections, etc.,—without an iota of change.