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The Litany of Excuses Continues

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Clarissa

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This is the best, folks:

It appears that law students at Columbia, Georgetown, and Harvard are claiming to have been so distressed by the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner that they are insufficiently compos mentis for their exams.

Sure, if the professors are rolling out a litany of excuses, why shouldn’t their students do the same?

As you know, I always let students submit late or reschedule without asking for explanations. But in the case described above, even I would reach the limit of my enormous in-class tolerance. You just don’t use a stranger’s death to your own benefit.

5 responses to “The Litany of Excuses Continues”

  1. Z Avatar
    Z

    “You just don’t use a stranger’s death to your own benefit.”

    Oh, I don’t know that it is that, although law students from fancy schools, yes, it is suspect. I did have a whole class of mostly Black students unable to concentrate well in Spanish 3 once these things started dominating the news. Because it really is unsettling & is hardly just the death of a stranger. There was of course news commentary on this all in Spanish so using that for the readings instead of what we had planned helped.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      No, of course, if my black students – many of whom are from Ferguson – said this, I would be very understanding because they do have a real reason to be flipping out. But these pampered law school kids? Seriously?

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      1. Z Avatar
        Z

        Unless they mean they considered it more important to organize around this than to make it to finals. On which there are two schools of thought: (1) it is important to act now, (2) it is more important to get degree, then act. Or a third, which would work in my favor since these people would get degrees and also organize, both of which things would benefit me directly: find a way for them to be able to do both.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          “Unless they mean they considered it more important to organize around this than to make it to finals. ”

          – If they can’t do both, I wonder how they are planning to work as lawyers with their 80-hour work weeks?

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          1. Z Avatar
            Z

            That’s another structure to be broken down. But in the meantime I still think it’s different for students, would want them to have this experience.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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