Hello everyone:

Sometimes circumstances make it difficult to met a deadline. You need a break. Emailing the professor as soon as you can will sometimes lead to a good result. Waiting until one week after the semester is finished and asking the professor to excuse your tardiness and shoddy work on the grounds that you will have to pay for the course, which will utterly ruin your life, is not the time.

Case in point: I recently had a student who barely showed up during the term and then, a week after the course ended, asked me to let him submit something a week and a half after the term ended, so that he wouldn’t have to pay for the course. If only I would raise his final grade by four undeserved points, his life would not be destroyed forever.  Nope.

Another case in point: A student who had been struggling very hard, who had documented reasons why her work suffered during the term, asked for a break. She got it.

The deal here is that sometimes bad stuff happens that is beyond your control. Other times, a student is just lazy and feels entitled. Guess which one the professor is responsible for? Unless the instructor hit the student with his or her SUV, it is never the professor’s fault. Just sayin’

Best,

Dr. Sheri