The Red Pen

“Almost everyone remembers getting their tests back as a kid with the red marks on them. Once the grade was written in red, it was final. The Red Pen sealed your fate – pass… or fail. But now I hold the red pen, and I seal their fate…

I arrive at the school, jumping off the tuk-tuk. As my feet hit the ground, I walk swiftly to my classroom. I unlock the door to the class and let the students in. I am cutting it close to the bell; I can’t have the kids alone in the classroom; it would be a mess. I start getting ready for class. I write the date on the board and pull out the classwork I prepped a few days before from the desk. It’s simple work; we are going over CVC words. At last, I pull a red pen from the pen holder on the desk and place it in the front pocket of my button-up shirt. Phenet, the teacher I work with, has meetings this morning, so class is up to me. I speak in what my students consider the voice of a giant; it’s just enough to grab their attention. Silence falls over the students; class has begun.

I give the instructions (in broken Khmer) and pass out the worksheet; the students begin their work in groups of four. I jump between the groups, helping the students when they’re stuck. After some of the groups begin to finish, I walk around checking their work and tell them (in broken Khmer) to write the new words in their notebooks. We are nearing the end of class, and the students start to bring me their notebooks to grade them. It’s time for the red pen.

Questions begin to form in my head as they do in every class at this point. How do you show Christly love to someone who doesn’t speak your language, and you have a duty to mark their every wrong? If a student fails, is it on the teacher for not teaching them well or on the students for not trying harder? In the eyes of the students, I have the power to mark their every wrong with the red pen, but the red pen also comes with the duty to mark wrong in truth.

One of the first students to come to have her work checked is a 9-year-old girl named Kaka. Another question: how do I use this red pen, this instrument of the authority given to me, to show her the love that Christ displayed for me and wishes to give her?

I mark the wrong words with this red pen, then I squat down so I can work with Kaka to sound out all of the words she got wrong, and we write them out correctly in this red pen. I don’t know all the answers, but if I can’t tell her about the love of Jesus Christ, then I will show her through my actions with my authority and with this red pen. “You could say it’s elementary, my dear Watson,” but it’s harder than one would think. Everything I do is watched by the people in this country, and even though I don’t have a lot of time left in this country and this school, I will use every second to display Christ to these young students that God has given me. With this red pen, I will display Christ.”