Anyone who attends school or teaches here knows what that means. It is an acronym which stands for “Learning in Progress” and it is even written into the official discipline code for the school. On the detention write-ups there is an option for the teacher to check which says, “L.I.P. violation”. So I have also included this in my personal discipline procedure.
Whenever any student does anything that detracts from my goal of teaching my subject, I write an “L” next to his or her name. It could be talking without permission, forgetting materials, getting out of his seat without permission, not paying attention, or any number of unfocused activities. It is a great catch-all for undesirable behavior. When a student receives his fourth “L” I assign an hour’s worth of detention.
On this particular day in biology we were working on a lab which allowed them to observe the process of anaerobic respiration (also called fermentation.) They were to put some corn syrup and a yeast-and-water solution into a balloon and tie it up. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it?
As I walked around the room checking on the progress of each group with my record book open I found Carlos (not his real name) in the middle of a L.I.P. violation. He had blown up the balloon and was pinching the neck of the balloon in order to let the air out with funny whistling sounds. In another context it may have been pretty funny but I had to give him a mark for not attending to the task I set before the class. In his case this was his fourth mark.
After class I handed the detention sheet to him to read and sign. When he discovered that this was going to cost him an hour’s worth of hard labor for the school his eyes grew wide as he stammered, “You’re not really going to give me detention, are you?”
“Yes”
“But why?”
“Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the hearts of the sons of men are fully set to do evil.”
“Huh?”
“Because, Carlos, if I don’t follow my own rules then you’ll know that I don’t mean what I say and you won’t learn how to do what is right.”
At this point his eyes flickered with thought for just a moment, and then he continued as if he had had similar conversations before.
“But don’t you want to be like God, Mister? God shows mercy.”
“You bring up an interesting point. It is the same strategy that the woman of Tekoah used when she confronted King David about restoring his son Absalom from being banished.”
“Huh?”
“What I mean is, while it is true that God is a God of mercy and we should strive to be like him, he is also a God of judgment. You’ve had mercy three times this semester, and now it is time for you to experience the discipline of judgment.”
“You mean you’re not going to change your mind?”
“That is exactly what I mean.”
Three days later I received notice that the sentence had been carried out and he has not received a L.I.P. violation since.
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