A little red ink goes a long way

She told me her math test wasn't a real test, because I'm not a real teacher.

So I pulled out the red pen and started grading. I circled the wrong answers and drew smiley faces by the correct ones. I made her fix her mistakes. And I gave her the grade she earned in big bold red numbers at the top of the page. (It was three points shy of a hundred, a devastating loss for my little perfectionist.)

She's taking me a little more seriously now.