Making excuses is an epidemic and something people learn at a very young age. In a school, they run rampant. Parents and students should both be aware that teachers, especially the more experienced ones, are suspicious the instant they see a note from home. In his book Teacher Man, veteran teacher Frank McCourt (author of Angela’s Ashes), hilariously recounts his encounters with excuse notes. He acknowledges, as do I, that he has received many a note obviously written by the student but signed blindly by a hurried parent. Too, bad. The parent probably missed a great piece of writing ~ from stoves catching on fire to clogged toilets over flowing. And the early school months of September and October, when students are re-familiarizing themselves with academic life, seem to be very lethal for grandmothers.

The leg work to reprimand a student for a false or even forged note is usually neither worth the time nor effort. Furthermore, the note rarely makes a difference, especially when it comes to an essay being due. Here’s the teacher’s thinking: I gave you a week, two weeks, or month to complete this assignment. If you waited to print it out at 10pm the night before and something happened, it’s your problem. If you are here, your essay should be here.

Actually, I would rather a creative tall tale than some of the real excuses: my printer ran out of ink; my computer crashed; the file just disappeared; I left my USB at school; the computers weren’t working in the lab this morning. EVEN WORSE is when I get an authentic note from a parent with the same excuses. I’m sorry, this is not meant to be a rant. I want to offer positive solutions for parents to help their children navigate the academic arena, especially in the realm of reading and writing.

You can best help your child by teaching him or her to remain calm and think about solutions. If you don’t do this now, your child will be the student I had my first year teaching college composition. I had idiotically given my students my home phone to let them know I was always there for them (I was 24 and out to save the world, one writing student at a time). One Saturday morning before a big essay due date, a soft-spoken female student called me to tell me her printer ran out of ink and she didn’t know what to do. True story.