No excuse to miss class...

There is an article today in Inside Higher Ed about the "Dead Grandmother" excuse that students give for having to miss class or an exam. I, too, saw many grandmothers die during my adjunct years, wondering if I should feel sad for the student or for myself for believing such a story.

As a doctoral student, I'm sad to say that the excuses don't change much. In one of our first semester courses, the syllabus says that to miss even one class is to flunk the class. As an older student with children, I was quite aware that I might be the one who would have to miss a class due to illness or some other problem--due to my children, so I made darn sure that I never missed one class. Interestingly enough, my other colleagues started slacking off and started to miss class--sleeping in, visiting boyfriends, and even coughs or colds. I don't remember if there were any dead grandmothers, but there were plenty of other excuses that I was grateful I never had to use.