With most relationships existing exclusively within the classroom, students often forget that teachers are people, too. Not only do teachers plan lessons and grade papers, they have to think about how to spend their Saturdays and what they’re going to have for dinner each night.
One such unacknowledged human tendency that intersects teachers’ personal and professional lives is the preference of pens. English teacher Catherine Boswell said, “I’m left-handed so I can’t use gel pens or fountain pens because they smudge, which is super frustrating. I also don’t like fine point pens because I tend to write quickly and they look really sloppy for my handwriting.”
Pens come in different shapes and sizes: ballpoint, gel, novelty, fountain and highlighter. The ballpoint pen uses an oil-based ink that is dispensed by a tiny spinning ball, while the gel pen uses a barrel housing the writing mechanism, a cap, and a reservoir that can be refilled with ink. “In a way, we have to use blue or black ink to sign any school-related documents (I prefer blue ink), so a lot of time I’m just using those two colors even though I prefer colors like purple and pink,” Boswell said.
Pens that teachers prefer may be specific models that they use often rather than general pen types. Math teacher Madison Swan said, “The pens I use most frequently are Frixion Erasable pens and PaperMate InkJoy Gel pens.”
Other teachers have different favorites. “I absolutely love a Cristal Bic pen. It is my favorite. The ink is so smooth and it’s just the right thickness,” Boswell said.
Other teachers disagree. English teacher Daniel Pecoraro said, “I don’t like the cheap plastic Cristal Bics. Yeah I don’t like those at all. They feel gross in my hands.”
Useful inside and outside of the classroom, pens serve different functions, especially for teachers. Swan said, “I use the erasable pens for making answer keys and the gel pens for grading.”
Although they may have preferences, teachers say the practicality of pens doesn’t always translate to sentimentality. “Even though I love Cristal Bic pens, they don’t hold any special value to me,” Boswell said.
Other teachers say that they have pens that hold sentimental value. Pecoraro said, “I was given some pens for my college graduation. I was gifted a pen set. I forget the brand, but they were nice pens.”
Pens have the power to divide and connect at the school, one line at a time. This is due to personal preference but also objective pen performance. Swan said, “A big factor in my pen selection is the tendency of the ink in the pen to ‘ball up’ between uses. I discard pens that do this, as they will start writing with a large ink spot.”
