A little off-subject

As a teacher, I have admittedly become somewhat jaded to excuses that I get from students who fail to show up for class or turn their work in on time. I try to be understanding that problems happen and they lead lives like the rest of us that are full of pitfalls and turmoils. Trying to discern a student's honesty about problems that they may have is something teachers struggle with.

I once made the comment that if I had a nickel for every student who emailed me and said they couldn't make it to class because grandma, grandpa, cousin, uncle, aunt, or acquaintance died I would be a rich man. True or not, I've had excuses as wild as a student telling me that he was hit by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike to school and could not make it to class. By the way, he wasn't hurt, but he had to fill out a police report which detained him.

As graduate students who have lives that often deal us with blows, it makes us cringe to have to explain to a teacher that we have had something come up that prevents us from being there. We ARE graduate students because we did our work, and yet I cannot dismiss the feeling that every time life deals me with a blow, sometimes severe, I cannot help but think of all those emails I received from students that seemed doubtful at best. When I send an email that says "Oh, by the way I won't be able to make it because life happened," I have all of my past and present students' emails haunting me. Dealing with this issue as a teacher is still a mystery to me. Dealing with the issue as a student whom is also a teacher is even tougher.