Math Department: Making the Switch from Pencil to Pen

Julia Xia staFF Writer

Attention Mills students! When shopping for school supplies, you might want to consider stacking up on pens and white-out because starting next year, math teachers are enforcing a no pencil policy. The math teachers at Mills are tired: tired of straining their eyes trying to decipher their students’ work, tired of eraser shaving littering the desks and floors, and tired of the constant sound of a pencil sharpener going off mid-discussion.

In order to combat the irritation, math teachers have decided to switch gears and give pens a try, thinking that they won’t cause as much trouble in the classroom.

“If I see another kid brush eraser shavings off their desk, I’m bringing back pop quizzes,” Geometry teacher Ms. Do-Le exclaims. But where did the teachers get this idea?

During my interview with Ms. DoLe she explained that while talking about the pencil problem with other teachers, Mr Guzman (an English teacher) brought up that maybe pens were the solution to the problem. Having a history of making his students write their on-demand essays in only pen, he believes that pens are the backbone of the academic community and students should learn to use them. The math teachers – not realizing it was a joke – took his suggestion to heart and began to consider his idea; thank you Mr. Guzman!

So why would a pen only policy entice teachers? Well, one thing about pens is that they are easy to see; unlike pencils, most pens are either a dark shade of blue, or just plain black, making it much easier to read a student’s writing. “When I check the homework there is always this one kid who writes way too light making it almost impossible to see their work; maybe if they wrote it in pen I could finally know what

Julia Xia: Thunderbolt

PETITION: Student Petition against Mills Math Department’s policy

There is still some debate whether or not the pen policy should be enforced next year; if there are enough students speaking out about it then maybe the teachers would think otherwise. Some students have even created a petition trying to prevent the policy from coming to fruition. If you want to support them, scan the QR code above.*

J X : Thunderbolt

GOODBYE PENCILS: Mills student makes the swtich during math class fromusing pencil to using pen write with their favorite colors, and more. “When I write in pen it makes my work look more fancy,” pen lover Clare Montserrat (10) says.

I’m grading,” Ms. Do-Le explains. Another reason why pens have become more appealing to teachers is their lack of mess. As mentioned before, with pencils come eraser shavings, and small broken bits of lead, all of which dirty up the desks and floors and get everywhere, whereas pens are mess-free.

Not to mention the fact that if students were to begin using pens on a daily basis, including during tests, it could potentially improve their handwriting and overall answers. The stress of not being able to erase could motivate students to try harder to make their handwriting more legible and understandable. Students could also use the different types of pens to spice up their work. “There are many different types of pens: there are gel pens, sparkly pens, fountain pens, ballpoint pens, rollerball pens, click pens, erasable pens, feather pens and so much more!” pen enthusiast Ms. Do-Le adds.

With all these varieties of pen students could color-code their work,

But pens aren’t all great, with pencil, it’s so easy to just erase whatever you might have done incorrectly and not be bothered by it; but with pens, you’re left with a scribbled out section of your paper or a whiteout mark. “When I make a mistake in pen, I have to cross it out or use white-out. You can always see the area where you make the mistake and I don’t like how it looks. It makes my work look messy,” an anonymous sophomore at Mills explained. While not all students struggle with writing the wrong thing, it’s still a serious concern that could impact students’ well-being.

It could also be extremely stressful for students to do their tests in pen, not many students are used to writing in pen and the number of mistakes that could arise are great. Since most pens can’t erase and not everyone has white-out, most of the space on the test would be full of scribbled out work. In classes such as Geometry, many of the tests involve graphing points and if someone were to make a mistake, it could ruin their whole test. One white-out waster pointed out, “If I had to do a test in pen I would end up using an unreal amount of white-out and it would end up taking so much time off the test trying to fix my mistakes.”