Excuses, Excuses

I had to wake up early today, on a day that I usually get to sleep in on, because Don had a student coming to his office to take a make-up exam. I have no idea if the student remembered to show up or not... I only recall that when I was a college professor and a student made a very early appointment to come to my office, the student often overslept. He or she often apologized later... well, 'apologized' is a relative term. I started rembering when I heard about Don's make-up test, and that got me thinking that in the great wide world of students and parents, probably very few know one important detail of any apology... Know this; when apologizing for missing class or missing an office appointment, you would be surprised how often a student then gives the excuse that the reason he or she missed is because their grandparent died. Now, I realize that this truth is certainly not humorous in any way... except one... This excuse has been used so often that it has been overused, to the extent that it is automatically disbelieved the minute it leaves a students' mouth... Whether it is true or not, the point is that any student who has missed class or an apppointment needs to come up with a better excuse than 'my grandma/grandpa died.' This is a little known secret that finally needs to be shared. Students should give other, more imaginative, excuses, as most professors have already heard this one before.

So, what's the best excuse I ever got during the three years that I taught college? You won't belive this, but once a student told me that he or she had to leave class early because the UPS office was holding a package for him or her, and the office is only open from 4:00 till 5:00, so he or she was going to have to leave class early in order to pick up the package. But there you go, hands down, the winner of three years worth of excuse after excuse after excuse... Professors have heard it all...