Source: Creative Commons

As I prepared my lesson this past week, my mind immediately thought, I wonder how many students will show up for class considering the Thanksgiving holiday. As Professor Diva Mac mentioned in a recent post, she has noticed that students are “tardy for the party” or just not coming to class altogether. Well, to embellish even more, I have noticed this too.

Teaching a public speaking class, attendance is important. From time-to-time, I assign impromptu speeches that really help the students develop their delivery. I teach three courses and rarely take offense to low attendance. I figure, if you don’t show, that’s on you.

Over the last two weeks, however, I did notice that two of my students were not showing up on several occasions. I knew that one of them would show up periodically while the other was always out sick. With the swine flu and everything else going on, I was not going to pry.  Also my BFF told me a long time ago “you make time for what you want to do.”

Well, this week, I was taught a lesson. My first inclination with the two students: A: they didn’t want to learn; B: they were truly sick; C: they were not interested in improving as students. I must say that I was selfish and didn’t think that they may actually have other things going on in their own lives. This is where the lesson came.

After class, the student that had been out sick, indicated that she needed to speak with me. My first thought was, here we go. Not the case. She indicated that she was diagnosed with Lupus and would bring in all the paperwork for proof. I told her not to even worry and that I understood.  Here I was thinking she was not interested in learning but in actuality she was trying to overcome this condition.

As I walked to my next class all I could think of was her. I had a little time on my hands and decided to check my email. The other student who showed up periodically emailed me. She indicated that she was going through family issues and shared that her mother was Bipolar. She didn’t want to get into details but wrote that she was dealing with the fact that she may have to commit her to a facility. Needless to say, I was troubled and had to diva check myself.

I am here to say that I made a mistake in thinking the worst. This diva needs to understand that all students are not alike and at times, students deal with issues that may prevent them from attending class.

Smooches,

Professor Diva Cali