Purple pens flew off the shelves in September of 2004 when studies released just prior to the 2004 school year showed that grading in red was “critical”, “harsh” and known to cause “self esteem issues” in children. Purple quickly replaced red as the best color choice for caring teachers.

Today the table has turned. It is now the teacher’s turn to demand they be graded with “purple pens.” On Monday a French court ordered a teacher rating website, www.note2be.com, (similar to the American site www.ratemyteachers.com) to remove all names from its site so that no teachers are personally criticized. The site will be fined 1000 Euros each day it fails to cooperate.

The site, started in late January of 2008, provided a forum for students to rank their teachers with a 6-category rubric: interesting, clear, fair, available, respectful, and motivated. Since it began, an average of 150,000 students have visited the site daily and rated 50,000 teachers.

With the average teacher ranking 14 out of a total 20 points possible (not stellar, but a passing grade) why are French teachers up in arms about this site? They give a few reasons: the site breaks privacy laws, incites public disorder, and breaches “their right to be judged only by superiors.” The country’s educational establishment denounced the site as “public lynching” and the court declared: “The exercise of freedom of information and of expression has a limit that it does not damage teaching activities.”

Entering the “rights” ring, the owners of the website have thrown a rather hefty claim back. They call it a right to “free speech.” The French court seemed to think the “right to be judged only by superiors” trumps in this case, however. Free speech is sometimes just too “red.”