Why College Students Fail

While there are some college students who lie to get an extension on a paper or to be able to turn it in without ramification, it is important to note that the excuses are sometimes not a lie. In the essay "The Dog Ate My Flash Drive, and Other Tales of Woe" by Carolyn Foster Segal, the author explains that she doesn't allow late work and that many excuses are lies and often ridiculous ones at that. However, the examples the author gives in the essay seem to fail to support this argument because there is no proof of the excuses being untrue, sometimes things happen that interfere with school work, and most students take their education seriously so they wouldn't lie.

In the article, the author starts by telling us about a funny cartoon on

her office door that illustrates that she doesn't accept excuses for late work. She further expands on this by mentioning that in her syllabus there is a lengthy explanation that late work excuses will not be accepted. The author provides support by giving the reader some examples of the excuses she has received over the years. These excuses include death in the family, troubles with friends, issues in the dorm, problems with technology, and even some really bizarre ones that don't fit into any neat category. While reading, it is clear there is an impression left on the reader that the author doesn't care for any of these excuses let alone believes them. However, there aren't any examples of the truth behind the excuses.

For most students, college is only one aspect of their lives.

They also have to juggle work, family, friends, healthy living, research, and social events. While no one will argue that any of those are more important than college it is easy to see how they might conflict with each other at times. Many of the example excuses given in the essay actually do happen and are an unavoidable fact of life. For example, family members do die. Often times it isn't a sudden death and can be a huge impact on an entire week or even a month. In these sorts of situations, it is only reasonable to expect a professor to be flexible with the student with their course work. The author also gives no examples of proof that the excuses were pure deception. Adding to the previous example of a death in the family, the student could have provided an obituary that proved they were truly not lying. It would be easy for the author to ask another family member if there had truly been a death or if the student was lying, but the author doesn't provide any such examples. Without proof one way or the other, it would be safer to side with the student in times of trouble than risk making a tough situation tougher for someone whose relative recently died. While some excuses might be more trivial and thus carry less weight, they do happen and it's understandable for it to have an impact on

college.

With that being said, the essay does hold some truth. Some college students, who don't take college seriously, might lie in order to make up for their own procrastination. In these instances, it might be easier to tell if they're lying or not as mentioned in the previous paragraph. It is also worth noting that if a hard working student suddenly has an excuse for their assignment being late it may be easier to believe than someone who is consistently making excuses. The essay is organized very well, with several different categories for excuses, which gives the reader the impression that the author has had vast experience with faulty excuses. Because of the experience, it may be easy to become jaded and just deny everyone any sort of lenience. I would hope that most professors would be more humble and realize that things do happen in student's lives are are unpredictable and unavoidable.

The article raises a valid concern, that people make excuses for their own educational shortcomings, but it is important to consider it from the other side of things. Family deaths, technological failures, trouble with friends, and more do happen. While some are more avoidable by taking precautions, they do indeed occur. I believe it is necessary in a student's time of trouble to attempt to work with them on a compromise in consideration to placate the student's educational concern and the professor's inconvenience of having an assignment submitted late. Unfortunately, this essay doesn't provide strong enough proof to make me lean more toward excuses being unacceptable.