Excessively Complex Assignment Rules
Or -
Why Not Just Go ahead and Do Everything On Time and Not Worry About It?
1. Homework is due every Friday by 2:30. If I’m not at school, give it to Nancy.
2. By “homework” I mean a substantial amount of work. If you are engaged in a several weeks’ long project, you must persuade me that you have done a week’s worth of work that week on it.
3. Work that is not completed by 2:30 on Friday won’t count as homework for that week. You blew it.
4. Exceptions abound. Problems you knew about ahead of time (like field trips)- don’t count as exceptions.
5. You are allowed to miss two assignments each semester and still get credit.
6. You are allowed one “Brendan exception” – an assignment you can choose to turn in late. It must be completed two weeks before the end of the semester.
7. Each week you can choose among that weeks’ assignment or any previous week’s assignment you haven’t already completed.
8. If you don’t like my suggestions, talk to me about what you would like to do. Talk to me before the weekend before the assignment is due. I want you to be doing something you find enjoyable or meaningful.
9. I want you to work and learn and do things you can be proud of. If an assignment is shoddy I will not accept it and it will not count.
10. Sometimes an assignment will count as far as meeting the deadline but I will still make you redo it for it to count in the long run.
11. If you miss too many assignments, you may be able to reinstate yourself by completing all of the assignments plus doing something onerous, like a research paper (to be individually negotiated).
