No Sense of Urgency......

Tomorrow starts our last week of school for this year.

Pause for applause. Perhaps a happy dance. And a margarita or two.

Some of our students are still in limbo as far as graduation is concerned. They have until Wednesday to finish their coursework, because that's when grades are due for seniors.

One of them went with us on a recruiting visit Friday and THEN SKIPPED THE REST OF THE DAY.

One went outside for our picnic/nature center dedication and had to be dragged back inside KICKING AND SCREAMING to do her coursework. We had just met with her the day before, when she said she really needed to buckle down and work really hard. We had to wake her up to have the meeting.

One emailed us for the umpteenth time on Friday to let us know she would be late because step-mom just had a baby and had a Caesarean and can't drive and she had to take her and blah blah blah blah blah blah. She never showed. Then she emailed me for a test retake. She became irate at my response that she did not have permission to work from home instead of coming to school.

Then there is one girl who was pitifully behind last week. Attendance has been deplorable, excuses have been abundant. She turned to me on Thursday and said, "I need you to give me my cumulative exam, please."

"Sure, no prob...." Wait. Wasn't she just at like 43% of her course a couple of days ago? I was suspicious.

Then I checked her online attendance log.

On Tuesday of last week, she worked on her computer curriculum for 19 hours. On Wednesday she spent 13 hours and 53 minutes. On Thursday she was down to a measly 11 hours and 41 minutes. Her total usage for last week was 68 hours and 29 minutes.

Apparently her mother was dismayed at the news that she would probably not graduate, and she (perhaps theoretically, perhaps literally) chained her to her computer.

I told her I was impressed, but I had no sympathy.

"I know," she said, "I did it to myself."

Still, at least SHE has a sense of urgency.

Some of the others?

Not so much.