Certain emails I get from students really make me wonder about the types of educators that they previously had.

For instance: why would I EVER be inconvenienced when someone misses class and asks for an extension when a loved one dies?

I have students offering to send proof like obituary announcements and official documentation from a funeral home. Because without this I won’t believe them?

How broken are we that we are placing this burden of proof on people who are grieving the loss of a loved one?

Of course this may not be on the educators alone- but on policies set forth by people higher up and teachers are made to be the bad guys who are supposed to enforce the rules without budge.

I just want to tell these people that there are so many more important things going on in your life than just my class.

My class should be the LAST thing you should be worried about during situations like this.

Maybe I just care too much.

This was never an easy part of the job before we were living during a pandemic which has claimed 200,000+ lives in the US and nearly a million people and counting world wide.

Now I just feel death is everywhere all the time and it’s just so damn draining.

I’ll probably be deleting this thread later. I just needed to get all of that out of my brain.