Nobody Cares About the Storm

Recently I read a story about a college student who approached her professor about lowering her grade due to missed classes.

 

She said, “I don’t know why you took my grade down for skipping your class. I never skipped it on purpose. I just didn’t get up, so how can you punish me for skipping class when I never skipped it?”

 

As a teacher, I saw this kind of behavior from time to time. It seems to be more prevalent now than when I was in the system, though. Students have an assignment or a responsibility, then when it is not completed, they use their excuse as an equal for the project.

 

Somehow we’ve gotten to the point in our society where the person delivering the message believes a reasonable explanation is the same as having done something. For them, it is perfectly acceptable that they didn’t do what they said they would do because they can explain it.