well this is pretty legit, theres plenty of psychological evidence supporting this move. Red is an aggressive colour, it sets off instincts in our brain, its also partly the reason why brake lights are red, easier to notice. I dont see why the government would have to legislate it, the difference is pretty minor overall, all i am saying is that if i were a teacher i would not be marking in red and all of my friends who are teachers dont mark in red either.
I dont get the negitive backlash against school systems trying to build self esteem in kids...maybe they do need to learn that the real world is full of failure, where far from the person coming last gets a medal, its more like the person who comes second gets nothing at all...after all they are just the first loser.
They are kids though, i would much prefer their self esteem is raised high enough so they can deal with problems when they arise[lots of studies to back this one up too] and kids with higher self esteem are less likely to get into drugs, less likely to have a teen pregnancy, more likely to succeed and a significantly lower rate of depression and other psychological problems.
Yeah the red pen thing is a really fucking small issue thats only a drop in the ocean, maybe legislation making teacher bullying forbidden [e.g my teachers used to call kids dumbasses for getting questions wrong, things like that] would have a heaps better effect on stuff then red pen bans but its just one more thing that needs to be done, its easily enforced easily implemented, basically free to introduce.