From blah to brazen, lazy students come up with excuses galore. but are teachers falling for them?

We’ve all been there — not completing an assignment; running late to class; missing the deadline for a project submission... It’ s all part of college life. So, what does one do when these “things happen”, as they inevitably do? Well, that’s when you use the art of ‘cooking up’ excuses to bail yourself out of sticky situations and avoid getting pulled up by the prof. But, have you ever wondered what teachers think of your excuses? Do they know when a lie is told? If they do, does it make them angry? or does it crack them up? Or, do your long, convoluted stories remind them of the time they were students and doled out these tales themselves? Hyderabad Times talks to lecturers in city colleges to find out the other side of the story.

Too cool for school
From bizarre to blah to outright blatant, students come up with a range of reasons to explain why they didn’t do something, says Zainab Saleem, a psychology lecturer at St. Ann’s College for Women. “often, the kind of stories they come up with are so indicative of their generation. They speak their mind, irrespective of the place or time or situation. a student once told me that she had torn up her assignment in a rage after a fight with her boyfriend. I was dumbstruck.” Zainab can’t imagine anyone of her generation, bringing up the topic of boyfriends in front of lecturers, let alone use that as an excuse to get away from being reprimanded.

“I don’t think any of us could even utter the word ‘boyfriend’ in front of our teachers. Let alone use that as an excuse for not doing homework! We were terrified of our teachers. But this generation is not like that. They are more open to sharing personal matters with their lecturers. Students are more outspoken. They aren’t bothered about the impression they make; they’re too cool to care. I reckon the influence of social media has some role to play here — they’re constantly encouraged to speak up and express themselves. I don’t judge them, but some kids tend to take too many liberties.”
Been there, done that
To the ones who cook up stories once too often, all the teachers who we spoke to, have just one thing to say —it’s obvious when someone’s pulling a fast one or trying to push their luck. After all, they’ve “been there, done that”. Priyadarshini, a professor at NIFT, says, “In the 14 years that I’ve worked as a professor, I have heard so many ridiculous excuses. I call them out if they’re too outrageous, so my students now just tell me the truth because they know they can’t get away with it.” What’s one excuse she would never buy? “Well, the most common excuse that I hear is that they have left the assignment in the auto or the bus. But the excuses for coming late to class are even zanier. For instance, the hostel is right on campus and it probably takes a few minutes to walk to class. despite that, they get late and think they can get away with excuses like, ‘There was no water in the bathroom’ or ‘I had to take a friend to the first aid department’ or ‘Buy breakfast’ or worse, ‘my alarm didn’t go off. Full marks for creativity, but they cut no ice with me,” quips Priyadarshini.

Lis Sanya, a lecturer at St Francis Junior College, who is just one year into her teaching career, says she can tell a sob story, no matter how convincingly it’s delivered, from a mile. “We’ve all been there, done that at some point. From the same ol’ ‘I kept it in the bag and I can’t find it’ to more creative ‘My assignment got wet in the rain and the ink got washed away’, I have heard them all. But the story that takes the cake in my experience is one student who told me, ‘I left theassignment at the stationary shop where I was getting it bound’. it was a total facepalm moment for me,” laughs Lis. How can she tell if it’s a fib? “too many details in a story is always a red flag.” she says. And you thought going that extra mile and explaining all the nitty-gritties of the story to make it more believable worked! “You know when someone gets into too many details that she’s lying,” says Shreshta Manabasi, a lecturer at Villa Marie College, adding, “A student told me that she had finished her project and locked it inside the cupboard so her 4-year-old sister couldn’t get to it. She also went into the details of how this 4-year-old would scribble on or tear up her assignments so she wanted to be cautious this time. However, the morning of the deadline, she couldn’t find the keys to the cupboard and hence, she could not submit the assignment. I heard her out, but her marks were deducted obviously.”

Teachers, not fools
A teacher might let you off with a shrug, or stern look. But that doesn’t mean she’s convinced. “Far from it. We just don’t want to be harsh on the students,” says Zainab, who admits that some students stretch it too far. “One girl actually told me that her cat peed on all her papers! Brazen is all I can say.”
But some teachers also see the good side of this blatant attitude of Gen Z. Dr. Suchitra Singh, Asst. Prof, English, Vivekananda College, shares, “A student once said that she and her mother went looking for her drunk dad who had lost his way, so she could not complete her assignment. We would be too ashamed to admit something like this to our teachers. It’s good that students now talk about such things. We might be able to help them if the situation gets dire. This option was not open to us at all.”