Over the years I have collected students’ excuses for missing class that were sent to me via e-mail. The excuses range from sad to funny to strange to bullshit. The excuses are presented as written, complete with spelling and grammar errors, and slightly edited for clarity or brevity. Click on the image below to view the excuses.
One thing that these excuses reveal is how students’ personal lives intersect with higher education, and how professors have to provide individualized responses to students personal as well as academic needs.
The professor’s response, of course, can range from being flexible to student’s problems (a characteristic that students value, along with empathy)Â to totally being inflexible (for good reason).
Whatever the student’s situation, it is always interesting and poses new challenges. Providing individualized responses to students’ personal problems is both a source of frustration at times for faculty but an opportunity to learn and improve one’s interaction with students.
By the way, which excuse is your favorite?