After I posted the story of the mother who called me about her daughter’s failing my class (and then not), a reader of the blog asked me to repeat a post from years ago, of the best excuse I’ve ever received from a student for missing an exam. I dug around and found it. It begins with my apologies for not getting to my Mailbag as much as I should, as it grows longer and longer. The apologies still apply! And the excuse remains the best I’ve ever gotten. Here’s the post:
****************************************************************************
My sincere apologies to any- and every-one who has asked me a direct question that I have said I would devote a post or more to. The list of questions that I need to address is as long as my arm, and in many cases I suppose people forgot that they even asked! But if you asked and are waiting – apologies. I still have the questions and I will get to them, slowly. But I find that once I start answering a question, to cover the issues thoroughly ends up taking several posts and I get sent down some byways. But that’s OK, in my opinion; I tend to think that makes the blog a bit more interesting.
Anyway, below is a question (out of order in which I received it, I’ll admit) that I thought was pretty good. It is about my syllabus for my course, where I indicate that my deadlines for assignments are set in stone and late papers will be penalized. Here’s the question:
QUESTION:
“Both deadlines are firm.” Any chance you will do a post on some of the better excuses you’ve got for overdue assignments over the years?!
RESPONSE:
Ah great question! In fact, I almost never get any good or memorable excuses for late papers. But I’ve gotten some *amazing* responses in the past to explain why a student did not turn up for the midterm or final exam. You’d be amazed how many sick and dying grandmothers a single student could have!
My all-time favorite excuse came…
The rest of this post is for members only. If you want to see the full scoop, join the blog! You’ll get tons of your money — an occasional human interest story (like this one) — and lots of posts on the New Testament and early Christianity. So join!