I was never afraid of Red ink being on my test papers. I was afraid of the Belt that my father would lay upside my hine end when he saw the red ink.

http://www.boston.com/news/education...seeing_purple/
When it comes to correcting papers and grading tests, purple is emerging as the new red.

"If you see a whole paper of red, it looks pretty frightening," said Sharon Carlson, a health and physical education teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Northampton. "Purple stands out, but it doesn't look as scary as red."