Semester's End... Again

Getting a spike in student emails at the end of the semester, right when the "big things" are coming due, is nothing new. It happens every semester and the variety and creativity of the excuses never ceases to amaze me. And I am not here to judge the validity or legitimacy of them. I actually do not care - produce the documentation necessary, as required by the university, and it is an "excused absence." Done. I don't give two shits if it is the third time your grandmother died this term.

However, an excused absence does not excuse a student from completing the required work. I think most of them understand that and that - excused and legitimate or not - they are just looking for more time, but there is a trend I'm starting to notice that indicates perhaps a new level of coddling is happening somewhere before they get to me. Some of these students seem to believe that if they have an "excuse" of significant magnitude, that is disruptive enough in their personal lives, that it not only excuses their absence (I almost never "take roll" anyway), but it also excuses them from doing whatever project was assigned to them when their lives were disrupted.

I am not sure what they expect. Am I supposed to just remove that project and the associated points from the total and calculate their grade on what they did do? Do I take their average of what they did do, insert that in the grade space for that project and then calculate their grade? Am I expected to recognize - and award credit for potential? Does "deserving grace" equal merit as shown by performance? And how is that going to be received by the rest of the class - you know, the ones who did do the work?

 

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In every case, when I receive these emails of personal hardship, my response is empathetic (been there), but also pragmatic. I can both understand and explain that there is no way to award credit for work that was not done - excused or not, legitimate or not, documented or not, whether I believe it or not. None of that matters and at this very moment, there are exactly six days left of the regular semester before finals week begins. Time is also a factor. I get the feeling that there are students who were counting on their excused absence also excusing them from the work. This is not exactly new, but it is much, much more prevalent.

I don't know where this is happening, but somewhere they are learning this works. I hope it's not happening in college classes, but I'd bet there are some overly sympathetic professors who do give grades, that were not earned, because of circumstances beyond a student's control. But my students are mostly freshmen and sophomores - they are not learning this in college. It’s coming with them, from high school, from middle school - but ultimately, it's coming from their parents.

Stop it.