Better late than never is a mantra we’ve all heard before, but is that true of homework assignments? The arguments of how and whether or not to grade late assignments changes from teacher to teacher. Some teachers here at Horace will grade all late work if it’s in by the end of the quarter – others will give a zero with no exceptions if it’s not in by the due date. Most are somewhere in between. These variations can be confusing to students who have to mentally match the policy to the class. With that said, which policy is the best?
Doctor Howard Aldrich, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina, has run into this obstacle before, as he chronicled in his article “Assignments: Better Late than Never?”. When fellow professor asked Dr. Aldrich how to handle a late assignment that was worth 15% of the classes grade, he reflected on his own policy. He stated, “I never speculate about what I might do with the late assignment, preferring to deal with each of them on its own merits.” He explained that if he stood by a late policy no matter the circumstances, he would “feel really heartless in telling a student that I was very sorry about the accident and I hoped the victims would recover, but I stood firmly by my policy.” Late policies are clearly difficult to enforce when each student has a different reason for submitting late.
On the student’s side, working on late assignments are almost always a good use of time. As a student who has many times worked on assignments past the due date, I have seen with my own eyes the benefits. In my math classes, doing assigned homework, regardless of the late status, has aided me on tests and helped me better understand the material. I have also found that many teachers are more lenient than you may think, and by letting them know that I have completed the assignment, they are willing to accept it for credit. Teachers want their students to learn, and completing homework helps them do that – even if it means grading past the due date.
Overall, late assignments are worth completing. You may have to deal with the shame of telling your teacher that you didn’t get it done and don’t have a good reason, but if your teacher is anything like my newspaper teacher (hopefully), they prefer honesty and communication over a zero in the grade book.
