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[quote=Anonymous]Now that the semester is over I've been reflecting on something on which I think the parent perspective would be interesting. (I'm a parent myself, but of much younger children.) Do you think part of a professor's job is to prepare undergraduates for "the real world" in terms of being super strict with deadlines? I have found that my colleagues have very mixed opinions on this. Some of them think it is a big part of the job and give barely any or no leeway to students who turn work in late. They also tend not to allow makeups without documentation of a serious medical or other issue. Other colleagues think their job is to help students learn the subject matter and tend to be very laid back about deadlines. They will have a stated policy but in reality let students turn work in significantly late, make up tests, etc.

I myself am torn. When I first started teaching I felt like I had to be very strict with deadlines in order to remain fair to all students and to be taken seriously (I was in my late twenties). Now that I have more experience I tend to be more lenient and say that the learning matters much more than following an arbitrary schedule. But am I doing students a disservice by letting them turn things in a day or two late or allowing makeups even if their reason isn't super solid (or possibly even made up sometimes?). This past year was obviously very unusual due to Covid, and I was even more lenient especially with those who were directly affected by Covid. But what do you all think/want as parents in non-pandemic times? Do you think professors should stick to deadlines (barring dire circumstances) to prepare students for careers in which certain deliverables are due on a specific day/time with zero exceptions? Or do you prefer professors are understanding of the various stressors young people may face and focus solely on mastery of material no matter what the schedule?

I see this trend toward moving away from high stakes assessments, letting students take tests twice, and sort of ignoring deadlines. This is generally being espoused by the more teaching focused faculty who are involved in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The more research oriented professors seem to be more "old school" and say that it does students a disservice to get rid of huge exams/projects and to let them turn things in late.

What do you all think?[/quote]

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