Excused Absence
Acceptable reasons: serious illness, jury duty,
religious observance, death in the family.
A student writes to me: professor,
I’m sorry I left class early,
there were a lot of people coughing;
if it’s still policy to mark me absent,
I’ll understand. I write back to say,
no worries, you’re excused.
I tell my students at the start of the semester,
it makes a difference, being in the classroom, we all know it,
we’ve seen more students fail in the online-only classes,
we know how much harder it is to motivate,
so please do take this class seriously, please do come to class
if you can. Then I tell them that sometimes, things happen.
It’s Chicago in winter.
Sometimes, the roads aren’t safe;
don’t risk your life to come to English class.
If you have a contagious disease,
if you’re coughing or sneezing,
please stay home.
If you’re feeling up to it,
I’m happy to Zoom you in, and you can listen, at least;
I’ll even record the class for you,
and send it to you if that helps.
If you’re too sick, just rest, get better.
We’ll catch you up.
A student writes to me: professor,
my child has a fever and I need to take care of him,
can I Zoom in? Yes, of course, yes, thank you for asking,
thank you for talking to me, and trusting me with this.
We are all fragile sometimes, and we live in community;
we have to take care of each other.
A student writes to me: professor,
I have a migraine, I was in a car accident,
I had to take my sister to the emergency room,
I’m having a bad mental health day, can I be excused?
Yes, I say. Yes and yes and yes again.
In twenty-five years of teaching,
students have offered me
so many excuses,
but not one has ever
asked to be excused
for heartbreak.
This morning, the day after a bad breakup,
I wondered if it’s really too much to ask,
to have one day of not working, to be excused.
I told myself, just go to work. I wasn’t sick,
and I do love teaching. It might even make me feel better.
But I made a mistake.
Headphones and a favorite playlist, so I wouldn’t have
to think. It turns out that ninety percent of my playlist,
ninety percent of all the songs, are love songs.
So it isn’t long before I’m crying on the train, trying
to pull myself together, so I can be calm and composed
and even funny for my students. Let us talk about Tolstoy —
let’s read this bit out loud. Isn’t he hilarious?
Perhaps I should have extended myself the grace
I try to give to them. If a student ever wrote to me and asked
to be excused for heartbreak, wouldn’t I say yes?
Yes, you may be excused. Don’t worry.
We’ll make up the work
when you’re feeling better.
*****
1/31/24