I chanced upon this article from the mypaper the day before. It mentioned that bosses in the US don’t buy excuses for lateness of their employees. This make me reflect upon my own doings when i was still a student in the secondary school.

I was a real cheeky student during my school time. I had ideas and mischief up my sleeves whenever i stepped into school, so i ended up doing all sorts of weird things. Friends came to me and ask for an excuse to use on their teachers. I had 101 excuses up my sleeves, so i can always ‘lend’ one to them

My most common actions and the corresponding stupid excuses as a student were:

• forget to bring textbook (I got a lot of ‘gangs’ in the school, so i can always borrow from friends in other classes on my trips to the toilet. The excuse i gave my form teacher was, ‘Oh, i lent my friends in other class and i just gotten in back’ )
  
• never wear uniform during ECA (I was from the NPCC group. and i hate the usual master parades on early saturday mornings. So i bandaged my own toes and claimed that i couldn’t wear those boots’. Muahahaa)
  
• late for classes (Oh teacher, i missed the bus, my mum wants me to buy something for her.., my school bus was late!!)
• late homework submission (lend my friend, she forgot to return. lost my book on the bus)

Actually what makes people want to make up excuses? The reason is simple, they hope to avoid punishment and not take responsibility of what they had done.

As i stepped into the working world, i realize i survive better when i stop giving excuses. I am surprised that most bosses are quite forgiving as long as one admits his/her mistakes sincerely; with the effort of not repeating it again. This contradicts my statement ‘the working world is treacherous‘ i made in my earlier post. You just have to be at the right place at the right time.

All is not lost by once being a cheeky student. All my skills and knowledge are put into good use in class. Whenever my students give me excuses for being late for class, for being late in submitting their work; i feel like laughing out loud in front of them. I notice NONE of the excuses are new to me! They still belonged to my book of 101 excuses i had used many years ago. Hahaa, quite astonishing to know that students nowadays still lack creativity in this area.

So, just like the bosses in US, i take the students excuses with a pinch of salt. I will just listen and brush it off. Lessons will still carry on as usual. I will still downgrade their grades as usual too.

Stumble it!