What's better: clemency or strictness?

i would put in my syllabus late assignments get 20% off.

No assignment, no grade.

trip to help the world, i would let slide.

Excused late work gets a C or worse. Not turned in or not excused gets an F.

I assume these folks are interested in health care related work. I don’t think neurobiology is a general elective class. If they try stuff like this in a hospital or clinic, someone could die.

Neurobiology? This isn’t junior high.

These kids have two choices – do the work or fail.

Here’s my input:

1. No excuse for plagiarism. Failure.
2. Did she inform you of the trip ahead of time? No? Too bad.
3. Fail.
4. It’s no secret how computers work. She’s taking Neurobiology, she can find the “save” button.
5. How does having an injured foot prevent someone from doing their homework?
6. I’d offer him half credit for turning in a new copy. Take it or leave it. Only because it’s a pointless assignment anyway.

Even when I was in high school, the teachers worth their paychecks handed us a paper containing the assignment rules. There was no arguing – late assignments either had points deducted, or failed entirely unless there was a previously discussed situation.

Unless the kid has a doctor’s note saying he was in a coma for the duration of the assignment period, sucks to be him. He should be more responsible.

What the hell is happening to kids these days? I’m only 30, but I never pulled any crap like this in college, and I don’t think my friends did either.

I can see clemency in the first week or two… but not in the long-run.

What year college are these guys? Juniors and seniors? I’m having a hard time with them being the rule and not the exception. That sucks. Apparently their freshman/sophomore years were too lenient. As well as high school.

Suck it up and repeat the class if necessary, kiddos.

This is college, not day care. You are right in holding them to proper standards. They’re one step away from real life and it’s tough out there. That includes little missy who wants to save the world. She’ll be better equipped to do it if she has her education. The third world will still be there after she graduates and she can take her shiny new education and apply it all over the place.
Kids are like sharks. Letting them wear you down will be the equivalent of blood in the water. They’ll be all over you.
Keep up the good work. Teaching is tough and I salute you for making a proper job of it.

1. Fail
2. That’s the student’s responsibility.
3. see #2
4. CTRL+S really, how hard is that? see #2
5. She had 5 days to notify you of the situation, see #2
6. That’s unfortunate, it could be your fault, it could be his. There could be a middle ground here depending on several factors. But if you make an exception you might find you get an awful lot of “missing” emails, assignments, etc.

So long as you are consistent, honest, and straightforward in your reasoning, continue as you have. Your job is to teach them, not enable their excuses. Even if they don’t all learn as much about the brain as you might hope, a lesson in personal accountability will likely go a lot further anyway.

Two stories in the news lately. On the one hand, a Duke professor is being hailed for turning over the grading to her students who, coincidentally, all gave themselves an A. On the other hand, another teacher has been fired for giving her students low grades.

The right thing to do is make your standards clear and hold them to it. The safe thing to do may be to give them a pass.

In this case, strictness. Best for the student. They are becoming adults. They need to learn how to act like adults. BTW, how many calls/visits do you get from parents asking for special treatment, “clemency” for their kids? The parents are the enablers, you shouldn’t be.

@wonderingwhy “Hello, I’ll be your neurosurgeon today. I don’t really know that much about brains and stuff but I had a wonderful teacher who taught me the value of personal responsibility. So if I like, drain bamage you or something, I’ll totally cop to it. srsly.”

@Storms “So if I like, drain bamage you or something, I’ll totally cop to it. srsly.” Isn’t that what is likely to happen if the OP safely passes someone who didn’t earn it?

@Trillian Sure, but they might not admit it.

Neurobiology does not sound like something you take as a gen ed requirement. Have the policy spelled out in the syllabus, make them sign two copies, and you keep one, they keep the other. Offer some extra credit assignments that are spelled out at the beginning of the semester. If they miss a quiz, forget an assignment, get a low mark, they always have the option of doing extra work. More than generous.

I like the idea of allowing the student a choice to eliminate one grade at the end of term. It takes all the fight out of things. The teacher is upfront “There will be x amount of assignments and labs this year. A missed assignment or lab is an F. At the end of the term you may choose to eliminate one lab and assignment grade from your average.” It establishes mutual responsibility.

Well this is all up to you to uphold the standards of excellence that rises above the mediocrity that the world currently survives on. These kids will remember you as a pivotal turning point where they either get their shit together and thank you or fester in their own inadequacy and curse you and the “system”! You know what you gotta do! ;)

The course policies are explicitly spelled out in the syllabus. No late work is accepted with the sole exception of two major reports. They lose a letter grade each day these are late.

1. FAIL.
2. It wasn’t freaking jury duty. She chose to go, she chose to FAIL.
3. Stick to your stated policiy. FAIL.
4. As #3. She can’t save? Boo-freaking-hoo. FAIL.
5. As #3. She injured her foot, not her brain. FAIL.
6. Is there a chance you lost it? I’d make him give you the answers on the spot, ask him to explain what he did, etc. If he sounds convincing, give him the credit.
7. Go make me a sandwich.

Uh…@bob? Could you stop sugar coating everything and just come straight out and say what’s on your mind? You’re confusing us.

@bob_: There’s always a chance, but it’s extremely unlikely. I recently inherited a new, huge, lovely desk at work, and since there is exactly zero clutter it is completely apparent if something is out of place. That paper wasn’t anywhere on my pristine desk… so… I am about 99% confident I never got it. And it wasn’t the kind of thing he could “answer,” really—it was just observations taken during the lab section.

And 7. No.

@nikipedia Then FAIL.

And, D:

@bob_: The right answer is sudo make me a sandwich.

@nikipedia Learn something new every day.

I saw this recently, too.

Have your standards clearly written on the syllabus and stick to them. If these students are headed to a future in the medical field, future classes will be even stricter.

I too have taught University students.

I expected them to be honest and submit their own work and give proper credit for ideas they cite. Assignments have due dates made clear in advance. Students who plan to fail or fail to plan must experience the consequences of their choices.

Where serious tragedies affect students and those events can be documented should be accommodated in a reasonable manner based on compassionate grounds. Trivial ad-hoc attempts to get extensions or exemptions from rules should be refused.

Students must learn to plan their work, to us their tools properly and to protect their work.
Blaming the computer is the modern version of “My dog ate my homework.” Backups are easy to implement safeguards. Deadlines should encourage students to aim to complete their work before the last possible date to protect themselves from unexpected technical problems.

Academic pursuits are a discipline that students must learn. They will not succeed if they do not learn how to conduct themselves in a disciplined manner.

As educators we must make the rules and consequences clear in advance and follow through in fair and consistent ways. They are sometimes when clemency is the only fair choice. It clemency is misapplied, then fairness is compromised and students lose important opportunities to learn important lessons.

Being consistent and fair benefits all the students. Being lax and easily misled fails to meed the real needs of students of students who are serious about their studies.

Don’t feel guilty for applying the rules fairly and consistently.

Even from the perspective of a student, I give my vote to strictness. Some people fail to understand that there are rules, simple rules and if they aren’t followed, there will be repercussions. There is absolutely no reason why you should have to deal with such nonsense. Of all the things you cited, not a single one is at all acceptable. School is fun, but seriously, there’s work to be done.

@gggritso is right and I’m a student too. I would not appreciate getting my work done on time and having some other person turning in theirs whenever they felt like it and getting a good grade. It makes for poor morale and ultimately would cause the good students to lose respect for the instructor. And I’ll bet they respect you all to hell whether they tell you so or not.

Clemency with reprimand.

You are suppose to be a teacher, not a destroyer of lives. (lightly speaking)

First offenders: clemency with reprimand.

Repeating offenders: strictness.