Amazing how many grandparents die during exam week
Rick Diguette is a writer and teaches English at a local college. He is a frequent contributor to the AJC.
He was inspired to write this piece after the news about a local college student who pretended to be kidnapped rather than confess to his parents he was failing a class. The Johns Creek student sent his parents a text in late April saying that he had been kidnapped and warning them not to call police or he would be killed. Eight days later, the student turned up at home unharmed. He admitted that he had not been held by kidnappers but had camped in Forsyth County.
I taught college journalism classes and encountered a range of excuses for missed assignments, some even delivered by the parents of students. Once, a mom called to tell me that her daughter could not comply with an assignment to cover a public meeting. The mother said her daughter suffered headaches when she had to take notes quickly under pressure. I suggested that her daughter tape the meeting and write her notes from the tape, enabling her to pause the discussion or replay pertinent comments.
By Rick DiguetteI am routinely besieged by students who want me to bend some rule or extend a