When people grow up and become adults their excuses for not doing homework do not disappear. They simply become more convincing and more mature in nature, but the excuses remain.

For example, a woman takes a course just after she has had a baby. Of course, she does not do the course work and as the course draws to an end she approaches the teacher and explains that she wasn't able to do the course work because she just had a baby.

Her excuse: Isn't having a baby more important than the course work?

Well, of course it is. No question about it. Having a baby is far more important than anything that I could possibly teach in any of my courses and I teach courses in a variety of subjects and disciplines.

However, importance is not the issue. This student is bringing in an irrelevant issue.

The question is not which is more important. The question is whether having a baby replaces a knowledge of the subject matter that is being taught.

Yes, having a baby is perhaps the most arguably the most important thing that the woman could possibly do.

However, it does not replace her lack of knowledge of psychology or computers or translation or whatever her course may be.

By signing up for a course when she knew that she was about to have a baby or just after she did have the baby, the woman was making a decision. She decided that despite her limitations at that time, despite the fact that she just had a baby, she is going to do whatever is necessary so that she will be able to succeed in that course.

Granted, a friendly and understanding teacher might do everything possible to make her life easier. He may excuse a number of absences. He may change the due dates (AN APPROPRIATE CHOICE OF TERMS!) of certain assignments. He may give her special examinations. And so on.

However, having a baby does not replace the knowledge of the subject material itself. That may be postponed but the course remains. The course is the course.

Having that baby does not replace her knowledge of the subject matter nor does it give her the right not to know the things in the course. She took a course so that she would learn the material. It is important and necessary for her to learn the material. If there was material that was taught during the time that she had the baby and she missed that material and she doesn't understand it, then it is her obligation and responsibility to take whatever steps are necessary in order to learn that material or to find out how to understand it. A nice or friendly teacher might help in this regard, but whether the teacher cooperates and is helpful is not the issue here. The student who missed the material should know or must know that it is her responsibility to make up for what she missed.

The same with any issue that comes up as an adult. Adults have more serious issues than younger children and their excuses are definitely more important. They may have to miss classes for legitimate and important or even life-threatening issues. However, that does not mean that they can use these issues as a replacement for the knowledge of the subject matter in the course. That subject matter must be learned no matter what and irrelevant of their perfectly legitimate excuses.

In my country there have been cases in which men had to miss courses for reasons that were as legitimate as the women who had to give birth: the men had to go to war.

Again, the excuse is perfectly legitimate. In this case they did not even have a decision. They did not have a way of knowing in advance that they would miss the course.

However, when they return they must make up the material. The fact that they went out to war does not replace their knowledge of the subject material.

In these cases and others there must be a distinction between the excuse and the subject material.

The excuses that are presented are in these cases the finest and most well-meaning excuses that could be presented. There is no question that it is imperative to take any steps possible to make the material available to these students and to give them every opportunity to be able to make up the work that they missed.

But their valid and legitimate excuses cannot replace their work load. It means that they have to learn the same material as the other students but at a different and mutually agreed upon schedule. It does not replace their knowledge of the material.