# Should teachers accept late-work?



## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Why or why not? What are the pros and cons of accepting late-work?


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Here's reasons why I always here they shouldn't accept late-work. Students wouldn't be learning responsibility and wouldn't be learning about the real world. Here's what I have problems with this reasoning. First of off, the real world isn't like school. You're punished in job for turning in a report in late because they needed to published it in time for the readers which is loss for money. On the other hand, there doesn't have a denial for accepting late work. Why? There nothing of loss happening both parties. Why would you punish for somebody when there wasn't a loss at all? That's irrational. Going back to the second sentence, teachers aren't there to teach students responsibility. Their job is to evaluate and assess student's ability about the subject they're being taught. 

The arguments for accepting late-work is that student's ability will be evaluate and assess properly


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## Antipode (Jul 8, 2012)

As someone who is in school to be a teacher (and thus aware of child psychology and educational development), I'd say late work is acceptable. 

The argument is that "we need to prepare them for the real world"; however, education is more than just the real world. It is a time to explore--and if a child doesn't feel safe, they won't explore.

If the student had a viable reason for the work being late, I'd let them turn it in for full credit--if not, then I'll let them turn it in for partial credit. If the habit increases, then the rules change. There shouldn't be blanket answers for all students: know the students to know what to do.


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## Eckis (Feb 7, 2013)

If the student can't meet the deadline, no, they should not receive full credit... part of the grade is following rules effectively, and that definitely prepares students for the real world. And why make an exception for one student when everyone else had to turn it in on time?


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Eckis said:


> If the student can't meet the deadline, no, they should not receive full credit... part of the grade is following rules effectively, and that definitely prepares students for the real world. And why make an exception for one student when everyone else had to turn it in on time?


No, you're given graded for knowing the subject well. Not following the rules. I never see teachers giving points extra credit points for being well-behaved. And everyone should be able to turn their work. Not just one student


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Antipode said:


> As someone who is in school to be a teacher (and thus aware of child psychology and educational development), I'd say late work is acceptable.
> 
> The argument is that "we need to prepare them for the real world"; however, education is more than just the real world. It is a time to explore--and if a child doesn't feel safe, they won't explore.
> 
> If the student had a viable reason for the work being late, I'd let them turn it in for full credit--if not, then I'll let them turn it in for partial credit. If the habit increases, then the rules change. There shouldn't be blanket answers for all students: know the students to know what to do.


You're not evaluating the students knowledge on subject properly if you take off points for being late.


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## Antipode (Jul 8, 2012)

Great_Thinker said:


> You're not evaluating the students knowledge on subject properly if you take off points for being late.


Education isn't _just_ for evaluating student knowledge.


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## Eckis (Feb 7, 2013)

Great_Thinker said:


> No, you're given graded for knowing the subject well. Not following the rules. I never see teachers giving points extra credit points for being well-behaved. And everyone should be able to turn their work. Not just one student


That isn't true. The deadline is part of the assignment.

If everyone turned their work in whenever they wanted, I don't think the class would go very far.


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Antipode said:


> Education isn't _just_ for evaluating student knowledge.


The process of grading student's homework is to evaluate and assess student's knowledge.


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Eckis said:


> That isn't true. The deadline is part of the assignment.
> 
> If everyone turned their work in whenever they wanted, I don't think the class would go very far.


I never said there shouldn't be any deadlines. I said teachers should accept late-work.


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## Eckis (Feb 7, 2013)

Great_Thinker said:


> I never said there shouldn't be any deadlines. I said teachers should accept late-work.


What's the point of a deadline, then?


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Eckis said:


> What's the point of a deadline, then?


The teachers can check the student's progress. That's why deadlines must be set.


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## Antipode (Jul 8, 2012)

Great_Thinker said:


> The process of grading student's homework is to evaluate and assess student's knowledge.


Grading homework is the process of evaluating student knowledge, student responsibility, and student participation.

If a person is unable to achieve either of those three to a satisfactory results, they won't work within society as well as one who has achieved all three.


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Antipode said:


> *Grading homework is the process of evaluating student knowledge, student responsibility, and student participation.
> *
> If a person is unable to achieve either of those three to a satisfactory results, they won't work within society as well as one who has achieved all three.


That's irrational to me to grade paper work based on student's responsibility and student participation. That doesn't reflect their ability of knowing the subject well. I have never seen teachers take off points for homework or add based on student participation.


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## jamaix (Sep 20, 2013)

My first inclination is to say no but I think the teachers should be able to reserve the right to make exceptions for extenuating circumstances at their discretion. I do think teachers should be very careful about setting a precedent of accepting late papers. It can make their job much more difficult when they do chose to accept assignments late. I will say yes to the OP question but only in extreme situations and at the teachers discretion. I have known of teachers who are very lenient about this and quite a few students tend to abuse it. In my opinion, allowing students to routinely turn in papers late can hurt them more than it helps them. It can also be unfair to those who worked hard to get theirs done on time.


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## ChocolateBunny (Aug 5, 2013)

The work is work...why should when it's turned in make a difference? Though, I do understand that it makes things easier for teachers organizationally and schedule-wise to have deadlines and not accept work after them. Personally, though, if I were running my own class, I would probably have a pretty flexible late work policy.


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## idoh (Oct 24, 2013)

no, is not fair to the people who are actually trying :wink: the people who put in more effort deserve a better grade



Great_Thinker said:


> That's irrational to me to grade paper work based on student's responsibility and student participation. That doesn't reflect their ability of knowing the subject well. I have never take off points for homework or add based on student participation.


but grades are never based on how well you know the subject, even if that's what they try to measure. real grades are based on participation, effort, and how well you do on tests; that's how it's always been. if you want to invent a new definition for grades go ahead


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## Antipode (Jul 8, 2012)

Great_Thinker said:


> That's irrational to me to grade paper work based on student's responsibility and student participation. That doesn't reflect their ability of knowing the subject well. I have never take off points for homework or add based on student participation.


Hmm... what grade do you teach?


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

Antipode said:


> Hmm... what grade do you teach?


I don't teach. I forgot to put the words, "seen teachers" in which I added.


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

idoh said:


> no, is not fair to the people who are actually trying :wink: the people who put in more effort deserve a better grade
> 
> 
> but grades are never based on how well you know the subject, even if that's what they try to measure. real grades are based on participation, effort, and how well you do on tests; that's how it's always been. if you want to invent a new definition for grades go ahead


You're making an argument I'm never took a stance for. I said grading homework should be based on assessing and evaluating the student's knowledge. I never said _class grades_ should solely based on homework or test scores. Although I've never seen teachers give extra points for homework because they put in more effort or if they raised their hands more.


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## Antipode (Jul 8, 2012)

Great_Thinker said:


> I don't teach. I forgot to put the words, "seen teachers" in which I added.


Oh. You said you "have never taken off points," so I thought you were a teacher.

I can't say anything in regard to high school, but in elementary school (which is what I'm proficient in), it isn't irrational.


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## idoh (Oct 24, 2013)

Great_Thinker said:


> You're making an argument I'm never took a stance for. I said grading homework should be based on assessing and evaluating the student's knowledge. I never said _class grades_ should solely based on homework or test scores. Although I've never seen teachers give extra points for homework because they put in more effort or if they raised their hands more.


well then it makes more sense that if homework is only evaluated for knowledge (and not effort), it shouldn't be part of the final grade at all (which is effort). right?


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## XZ9 (Nov 16, 2013)

idoh said:


> well then it makes more sense that if homework is only evaluated for knowledge (and not effort), it shouldn't be part of the final grade at all (which is effort). right?


 I never thought homework should count towards grade at all. Exams and quizzes determine your ability. Homework is just practice. However, I'm not too concerned if homework should be counted towards grade or not. If teachers incorporate the rule, this just makes it easier for me to pass the class.


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## B00Bz (Jul 11, 2013)

I think that different people work differently and that should not be ignored, so its tough. But then again, I've never had a professor, upon being told I need more time to get my thoughts together to greatly improve my paper, not give me time when I have showed them my progress. I think if someone is putting in effort and thinking criticaly about the subject material and they need more time they deserve it, but if they are just procrastinating, that is something else.


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## B00Bz (Jul 11, 2013)

Great_Thinker said:


> I never thought homework should count towards grade at all. Exams and quizzes determine your ability. Homework is just practice. However, I'm not too concerned if homework should be counted towards grade or not. If teachers incorporate the rule, this just makes it easier for me to pass the class.


Some people are better at taking tests than others, that's why many professors use both tests and essays.


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## electricky (Feb 18, 2011)

I think timeliness could be part of the grade, but definitely not the entirety of it. If/When I'm a professor I plan on some of my assignments being open-date and some of them having deadlines which lose a letter grade each 3 days they are late.


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## Wonszu (Sep 25, 2013)

If there is a good reason why the work as turned late then why not. 

I remeber some of my professors were making deadlines early to mobilise us and finish before exams but they always let us give the work at least one week later. Thanks to the early deadline though rarely anybody used it. Student who did were treated equally. We called it "a second deadline" .


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## ALongTime (Apr 19, 2014)

I think they should accept late work, providing there's no practical reason for not accepting it (like delaying the teaching of the class). The important thing is that they did the work, if they had no commitment they wouldn't even do the work.


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## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

I think there should be deadlines for practical reasons. (And if you're like me, you need someone to give you a deadline because you can't impose deadlines on yourself. ) If everyone turns in their work late, how would anyone be assessed in a timely manner so they could truly move on to the next unit/lesson? If I were a teacher though, I would accept late work, but I guess I would have a three strike policy or something, after which points will be taken off. Obviously, extenuating circumstances would be an exception to those rules.


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

Great_Thinker said:


> Why or why not? What are the pros and cons of accepting late-work?


When I was a teacher, I accepted late work with one grade letter deduction for each day it was late (barring extenuating circumstances). 

Simple reason: we are all human, we all make mistakes, but there must always be consequences. IMHO, part of childhood (and young adulthood) is learning to make good judgements while the potential consequences to self (and others) remains relatively low.

Hopefully, by helping people to learn these important lessons early on, we are teaching young people to recognize that the "real world" consequences later on won't be as lenient.

Also, a teacher who was too strict with their policies ran the risk of running into trouble with certain parents, who often found ways to bully school administrators into overruling the teacher's policies. Being a teacher often turned out to be less about what's best for the student, and more about the separate agendas of the parents, administrators, and politicians. The administrators had to bend over for the politicians in order to get funded, and then take it again from the parents when they threatened legal action and negative press attention for the district. A great many teachers get lost in the flood (as I did).


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## AidanOfSweden (Sep 16, 2014)

Sometimes students have out-of-school and other in-school activities, and they shouldn't swamp them with work. They should just eliminate homework altogether like they did in Finland.


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## Sharpnel (Aug 3, 2014)

Like everything in life, it all depends, depends!
I agree that school is a place where behaving and knowledge matters equally; after all, they both serve a purpose in real life. Rules are *guidelines*, but knowledge is *power*. 

The difference is whether you must turn in work late because you procrastinate while playing Halo for 20 hours, or if you have a legitimate "disability" or mind-block, like depression, severe anxiety, ADD or dyslexia. I think turning in late is a chance to let these type of students be able to feel relaxed and less stressed, hence being able to demonstrate their proficiency.

I know I would have been less stressed and would have been able to demonstrate more of my true potential if I had been in a school system that actually supported understanding of people like *me*, me.

It all depends. Rules are guidelines, and because they are guidelines, some feel it is okay to take advantage of them. Yet, those type of people generally lack the power of knowledge until they get slapped in the face by life.


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## Totalbrit (Jun 25, 2012)

Yes. Iv'e got ADHD, if it's not late, it's a load of crap... and if it's late, it's a little less crap.


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## FePa (Feb 13, 2014)

Teachers also have deadline to deliver the closure of a class, hence students deadline. 
Or you expect a teacher to work extra time to correct your work ?


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## snail (Oct 13, 2008)

I don't believe there should be such a thing as "late work" because I believe students should be allowed to learn at whatever pace they choose, without any external pressure to be structured. The educational system should focus on teaching information, not on trying to change people's personalities by forcing them to conform to society's warped views about what it means to be responsible (SJ). The argument about preparing them for the real world is flawed, because in many cases, the job world becomes what it is because of the strict and limiting structures people become accustomed to in school. If everyone collectively rebelled against all unnecessary forms of control, we could change things, and there wouldn't be some "real world" so awful that it would necessitate damaging children to make them fit into it better. 

Certainly, there are some jobs that require doing things to a schedule, and those jobs should be held by actual SJ types or people who don't mind structure. Those of us who are not naturally like that should not have such expectations imposed on us, and should be able to find jobs where greater freedom is possible. Excessive structure should not be the default, because only certain types respond well to it, and because it is easier for them to create structure for themselves on their own terms than it is for more spontaneous types to work completely unnaturally in an environment that stifles the free flow of their productivity.


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## Mr. Meepers (May 31, 2012)

I think a teacher's main job is to teach students the information, attempt to get them interested in the subject, and help guide students when they need it. As long as the homework has not been reviewed in class, I think there should be some process of accepting the work. For instance, some students may really struggle emotionally with things (or are struggling with the material in general and don't have enough support to help them learn in a more timely manner) but have a hard time bringing it up to their teacher out of fear, because they just feel like they are "bad students" when there is a lot more going on. Also, if a student misses an assignment,then they may be tempted to just skip that whole section and do the homework for the next section, where they could be lost, confused, and just lose interest of the subject. Since homework is about learning, I think doing the work and giving students and incentive to do past homework assignments that they missed (even if it is just extra credit) can help students to learn the material on their own (outside the classroom where they would have to think about each problem for themselves). 

I know there is argument for teaching students responsibility, which I think there is some merit to that (although, they are still students and may be dealing with things or have more on their plate than others, you don't know if other classes are giving them a harder week, so I'm not sure it is fair to have hard deadlines), but I could also argue that having hard deadlines would just teach students that if a deadline passes that they should just give up on learning that material or doing that assignment or give up when a deadline passes in real life. Sometimes things are better late than never, so I do think that we should place more importance on getting the assignments done than meeting a timeline. So, in that regard, I think having some penalty (but not too strong of a penalty) would be beneficial and add motivation (not to mention that even the students who are trying, but struggling with the class may need more time). I suppose homework can be used to assess where the students are at though, but maybe smaller assignments or weekly 10 minute, easy quizzes (that are not worth much and that are not sprung up on them) could be a way to see how much they know (granted, I suppose some students may have anxiety about small quizzes as well, one the other hand, getting used to smaller quizzes may made bigger tests less daunting)


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## missjayjay (May 5, 2014)

Yes, I think teachers should make an acception for late work, but it depends on the situation. If the student is slaking off most of the time and isn't showing any effort in class, then no. If the student wants to learn and is a hard worker, I don't see why their should lose points.


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## niss (Apr 25, 2010)

Of course there are and must be deadlines for turning in work.

*The class can't wait forever until someone finally gets the motivation to turn in their work.

*The teacher can't have kids at widely disparate levels of understanding of the concepts, while trying to give whole class instruction.

*The teacher has specific instructional content that must be taught, which includes deadlines.

*The teacher has administrative tasks that must be completed on a deadline, such as progress reports and report cards.

*If you are really worried about grasping the content, there are several avenues of helping yourself attain that goal.

*Teachers have a life outside of the classroom. They have deadlines to meet. Your lack of desire to meet your deadlines inconvenience the teacher and force them to give up family time. 

Personally, my inclination would be to refuse to accept late work - at all. However, in the interest of extending a small amount of sympathy to some situations, I would follow the letter grade loss/day late model.

As an aside, in my dealings with people, I've discovered that it is almost always the same people that are missing the deadlines and are having issues making things work out on time. It's time to accept responsibility for your decisions and realize that there are consequences for missed deadlines.

Teachers get a bucket load of crap foisted on them day after day after day. Between students who don't want to be there and learn, parents who can't be bothered to invest themselves in their kids education, and administrators who have a warped view of their own importance and lack a spine, the education of those students that really want an education takes a hit - and the teachers are powerless to do anything about it.

Jump out there and grab yourself a teaching job. It's a piece of cake. It only takes 10-12 hours a day, M-F. Well, and it takes about 7-10 hours on the weekend, too. But you can split that up anyway that you like. However, you get summers off, right? Wrong. If you are lucky, you will have about six weeks that you can call your own. but those six weeks may have training classes, or prep work that you have to get done for the upcoming year. 

But hey, no sweat. That's why you make the big bucks, right? You can expect to start in the $40k-$50 range. Or, about $15/hour. Employees at Costco make that, but don't have to take their work home with them or deal with people whining about late assignments.

If teachers were paid according to the rest of the business world standards, their pay would almost double.

So, just skip the "me time" on the internet, or skip the party, and turn in your assignments on time. It's really not that hard.


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## Figure (Jun 22, 2011)

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, no, students should not receive full credit if any credit for late work. 

I think this notion that school isn't about the real world is ridiculous. People pay money for college degrees because they ultimately give the opportunity for financial independence post-grad - and that even applies to people who are passionate about the learning itself. Anyone with half a clue knows they need a job after college. If at some point going to college has no influence on one's ability to have financial independence, I'd recommend not going, and doing self-study if you are passionate about learning for its own sake. 

Timeliness should be included in how a student's performance is measured. Learning material and demonstrating that one has learned material within a given timeframe indicate different levels of proficiency, and need to be designated as such.


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## Ghostsoul (May 10, 2014)

This depends:
A. On the student
B. On the teacher
C. The Task

If the student is normally on time, has a good work ethic and genuinely cares about learning then they should be let off once or twice, especially if they have reasons for not completing it on time.

How much does the teacher care if it's on time, would it be ironic since the teacher themselves cannot meet deadlines, not meeting deadlines yourself and expecting all your students to meet them is bad teaching and makes you a hypocrite.

How important the work is matters too, thought it is important to get your students to get a good work ethic if it's just a small peice of homework it can wait for say and assessment or test revision.


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## Math geek (Jul 23, 2014)

What is the main purpose of school? To inform us and teach us, right? Sure, there's responsibility involved, but think about this: the grade we show colleges is our teachers claiming how well we understood the teaching and learned, and little does a bad grade consider the possible organization hardships. We are taken for about seven hours per day to learn, generally against the kid's will. My opinion is that the ethical consideration of homework requires an acknowledgment that this is a big expectation of them and not giving extra time is a cheap shot to their grade. It doesn't prove the right thing to colleges. I can't tell you how many times I've had to have a negative consequence for late work in a class where I knew everything. Giving a motive to kids who find punctuality to be difficult to at least do it and hand it in is something kids should have control over. Teachers should accept late work at least with specified boundaries, to compromise, if the homework they give is too much for themselves (hint hint).


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## lemurs (Jun 22, 2012)

Should be accepted, maybe with a reduction in the grade (minus 10 points) for each day late. This rigid stifling world needs to go, and things need to change and be adjusted to the present day and (more importantly) the future. After students go through this regimented schooling process for 20+ years, will they have been prepared for a world that existed 30 years ago, the one currently waiting for them, or the one they'll be in a few years after?

The more technology advances, the more the traditional educational structure breaks down, shows it's age, it's uselessness, and how clearly it needs to be replaced.


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## haephestia (May 13, 2013)

I'm surprised at everyone having these terrible experiences with late work. I think I handed in 80% of my stuff in high-school late and have gotten extensions several times in the 7 years I've been post-secondary.

I voted yes, late work should be accepted. I don't mean that it's acceptable per se, but life happens and sometimes you can't manage to get things done on the day they're due. I believe my current university has a good policy, which is that you lose between 8%-25% per day the assignment is late and the professor can set the penalty. For all of my courses so far it's rested at 10%. Realistically if you are doing a project so last minute you must hand it in a day late, you aren't going to get a stellar mark on it anyway.


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## Vincisomething (Aug 4, 2014)

If there were extenuating circumstances, then yes. If the person was just being lazy, I don't think so.


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## aendern (Dec 28, 2013)

Yes. Having a soft deadline of x and a hard deadline of y. 

After x you receive reduced credit for not turning in your work by x. After y you are SOL. 

Imo hard deadlines without soft deadlines are more hurtful than they are helpful.

In terms of efficiency, it's always more efficient to encourage students to do their work. This is accomplished via the soft deadline. If there is just a hard deadline, they will not do the work in the event that they miss the deadline.


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## aphinion (Apr 30, 2013)

Yes. 

Pros: 
- You get to live by the saying "better late than never"
- Teachers will receive waaaay more work than they normally would
- I'm a procrastinating piece of shit and without late work I will absolutely fail a lot of classes

Cons:
- I'm a procrastinating piece of shit and knowing that I can turn in late work means that I will continue to turn in late work instead of rushing to meet the deadline last second


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## dragthewaters (Feb 9, 2013)

Here's a story for you guys. In freshman year of college I was taking Calc II. Homework was collected at the beginning of every class period. I was less than 5 minutes late for class. The TA wouldn't accept my homework because it was "late." It pissed me off so much that for the rest of the semester I was like "fuck this class" and ended up getting a C. I also gave her a terrible evaluation.

So, yeah, teachers should accept late work, at least to a certain extent.


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## Arcane (Oct 9, 2014)

Give your work when it's due. No exceptions. 

If you could return it whenever, people would think they can get things done anytime they want, which isn't a good mentality to have.


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## Knight of Ender (Mar 30, 2014)

I personally think they should, but it's their choice since they have to take extra time to grade it. Sometimes schools already establish a late work policy that everyone is supposed to use. Turning in work late really does bring down the grade, though.


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## Bahburah (Jul 25, 2013)

Judgers vs. Perceivers


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## Deanna (Nov 30, 2011)

Teacher checking in... (I teach high school)

I am at a school where a couple years back we separated "behavior" grades from "achievement" grades for the very thing that's been noted in this thread, that the lateness of the work should not impact the grade that should describe the quality of the work.

Although I agree with the philosophy, as in most things, when it comes to carrying it out there's been a lot of problems.

I don't think I've ever had a student hand in high quality late work that they have not talked to me about an extension beforehand. By separating the grade out it implies that behavior does not affect achievement, but I think we all know that it does.

The OP was arguing that a grade should measure a students' knowledge and learning, I might argue that a grade is ultimately a prediction of how a student will do in university. If a student habitually turns in late work without prior discussion with the professor, they will not do well in university.


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## bluekitdon (Dec 19, 2012)

Great_Thinker said:


> Why or why not? What are the pros and cons of accepting late-work?


I voted no because that's the way the real world works, at least the majority of the time. If you have a very good excuse like you were in the hospital then I'd be a little more lenient, but kids need to learn early on what is and is not acceptable in my opinion. If you're up against a deadline at work and you don't get it done before that critical meeting with the client, then more than likely you've just lost that business. If you're in sales in particular then it's a binary operation, either you sold something or you didn't, there aren't any rewards for second place. When you say you're going to do something by a particular time then eventually if you don't do what you say you were going to do enough times you won't have a job.

The only real pro I can see for accepting it is that it might encourage the student to continue working on the project and finishing the assignment which is good practice. That being said, I still don't think it outweighs the lesson of getting things done on time. Certainly there should at least be a penalty for being late.


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## Im FiNe (Oct 17, 2013)

I believe that there should be a mix of times where late work is allowed and times where late work is not allowed. That would mirror what to expect in the "adult world".


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## Nordom (Oct 12, 2011)

If every last person on earth respected deadlines, I can't tell if that would be utopian or horrifying. Actually it would probably be somewhere in between. 
Many people are much more productive on their own terms and their professions have built in flexibility.
Try being a novelist *cough* George R Martin, or a game designer. You risk putting out an inferior product. 
I think there's a fine line between teaching students life skills or obedience.


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## koalaroo (Nov 25, 2011)

I had a course that I enjoyed in undergrad (it was a statistics course) that had hard deadlines and soft deadlines for assignments. I liked this concept because it gave me some leeway in terms of how and when I could work on it. Furthermore, for some homework assignments, if I was stumped by a problem in the homework, I could go back and redo it for additional points (although only for a percentage of its before-deadline value) for up to a week after the original date. This meant that if I made a mistake in my original homework assignment, I could for up to a week later learn from my mistakes and earn back some points that I might have otherwise missed out on.


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## Wartime Consigliere (Feb 8, 2011)

Of course. Why should someone in a teaching role display a gesture of ignorance towards what's inside the body of work?

Punctuality is important, but I think generally, penalties for being late (increasingly so for being more late) are a better way to handle the issue of being late.


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## Fern (Sep 2, 2012)

Yes, BUT there should be a grade deduction per day the assignment is late.

But for online courses? If it's due at 11:59 and you submit it at 2 in the morning? Yeah, teachers should allow that with no stipulation - in a perfect world.


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## Squirrel (Jun 14, 2014)

No. You're given a deadline - so you should be able to meet it and adjust your life/schedule accordingly.


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## Aelthwyn (Oct 27, 2010)

I think so. 
1) I believe in giving people second chances (lots of them). Life is one big ongoing work-in-progress after all. 

2) it provides a sense of hope and motivation to improve (as the saying goes 'try and try again') rather than being defeatist and just giving up if you didn't get something done the first time.

3) in 'real life' while there may be some situations where too late is just too late, I think in the majority of cases 'better late than never' usually applies and that 'deadlines' are often arbitrary 'wishlists' which sometimes end up not working out or not being realistic, but that doesn't mean the entire project is just scrapped - of course people keep working on it till it's _complete_. Yes in the real world people insist on a deadline and make it unacceptable to be late, however I'm not convinced that Actual Practical Results of continuing later than planned are so 'end of the world' as people like to make them out to be - most of the time nobody is actually going to die - loose some face maybe, loose a little money maybe, but die or have the project just plain never ever work after this chance, I don't think so.

4) it often doesn't make sense to the student practically speaking since in school nothing really _Depends_ on them getting an assignment done by a specific time aside from the convenience of the teacher so they can gather them and grade them in a single batch (that and possibly further lessons building on it). But kids aren't going to necessarily see or understand the 'it's for the convenience of the teacher' aspect of it and will likely experience hard deadlines more as 'Adults being unreasonable with pointless requirements' which isn't really a helpful impression (or example) to cultivate. If you can explain _Why_ it actually is important to complete something, okay, but I think some kids will just see 'deadlines' as bulshit - it's not like the teacher _couldn't_ physically receive or sit and grade that paper if it came in two days later.

-- personally I think schedules for the sake of schedules are stupid, however it IS important to be aware of how different things effect or depend on each-other. There has to be a real Reason to get something done by a certain time, and the importance of that reason and the repercussions determine how flexible the 'deadline' is.


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## Wartime Consigliere (Feb 8, 2011)

Squirrel said:


> No. You're given a deadline - so you should be able to meet it and adjust your life/schedule accordingly.


Then, if someone is already late, they may as well not even bother doing it?


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