Pink Slips

So here's how it happens.  I play the part of the mean, wicked math teacher, out to prey on unsuspecting students while wielding my favorite weapon - the pink slip.  For you novices out there, the pink slip is often perceived as the weapon of choice for a teacher.  We teachers stand in the hallways, throwing them at unsuspecting students, feeding on their cries of "but I didn't do it" while giving one of those famous Vincent Price laughs that .... well, you get the idea.

All joking aside, it's called a discipline referral form, and students are given one for a variety of reasons.  Most of the time, at least for me, students are given a pink slip when they do something that goes against either school policy or my classroom procedures.  Or if a student makes a choice to do something that directly or indirectly harms someone else, even if the offending one thinks their actions were harmless.  The infractions can be minor or major.  I guess this is similar to being sent to the principal's office in my day.  I had that happen to me a couple of times when I was in middle school.  It's a way to hold students accountable for their actions and build strong Christian character in them.  It worked for me.

But God has changed my heart on the pink slip during my almost five years of teaching at a Christian school.  I confess that in my first year or two, I gave almost no pink slips.  In fact, I almost prided myself in this achievement, even boasting about it to my students at times.  But what I saw consistently at the same time was the same students doing the same inappropriate actions over and over again.  Now, I haven't gone completely the other way either.  I still don't write a lot of pink slips.  However, I believe God has convicted me that students need to be accountable for their choices and actions, just like we all are as believers before a holy God.

I think we miss the blessing and encouragement of discipline.  Hebrews 12:11 says, "now no chastening (discipline) seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."  The pink slip is painful when it's given to the student.  They have to suffer the consequences for their choices, usually an after school detention.  But afterwards, the discipline they are given produces the Godly fruit of righteousness in them.  You see, it's all part of the training that each student goes through.  Even students who don't get a pink slip at school will still endure discipline from God, assuming they are a believer.  So, in a way that is strange for us to understand, we need to see discipline as helpful to us....even joyful.  Ouch, perish the thought!  But also remember Hebrews 12:6, which reminds us that "for whom the Lord loves He chastens (disciplines)", and 12:5, "my son, do not despise the chastening (disciplining) of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him".

Now, I am certainly not encouraging my students to seek after the pink slip.  Our sinful heritage will provide enough opportunities for discipline from the Lord.  But I am encouraging my students to see the pink slip, should you receive one, as one way God uses to correct us and make us more like Christ.  And that's exactly what we are to be.

A final thought on this - from this teacher's heart.  I have never given a pink slip without a burden on my heart for the student involved.  Many times, I wrestle with this decision and pray to the Lord about whether to give it or not.  Many times, I think that maybe I can overlook this incident, maybe just talk with the student about it, and pray it doesn't happen again.  Sometimes that is the best, God-honoring response, and when God confirms that for me, I follow His leading exactly.  But there are more times when God confirms that providing discipline to a student is the best thing to do.  I have even cried over a few pink slips I've given, so burdened for the student involved and what I can do better as their teacher.  However, my aim in giving pink slips, as in all areas of my life, is to obey God.  The Bible is clear that He will hold me accountable as the teacher, even more so.

My prayer is that God will use pink slips to fulfill the passages in Hebrews mentioned earlier in the lives of my students.  And that any student who gets a pink slip from me will believe that it comes from a teacher who loves them and wants to see them do great things for Christ.

Pastor Randy