Response to my last post "Ten Tips"

Joe Seoulman has typed up his response to my lastest blog post.  You can check it out here. 

Here is Point #4 from my original post:

"Don't accept Kyeol-gung-wons (absence excuse papers) for minor things like colds.  Reserve it for the serious such as a car accident/brain trauma/close family member's death."

And Joe's Response:


"This one is complicated. Unlike North American universities, Korean colleges check attendance, and if a student misses too many classes they fail. Part of the system is that they get a note from the doctor. After my own experience with getting a doctor’s note (for an extension on an assignment for my doctoral studies), I now treat these all with a grain of salt. In my case, I sat down with the doctor and told him what I needed it to say. I told him the dates and he wrote what I asked him to write. I paid a fee for the document and that was it.) I’ve had students come in at the end of the semester with one of these notes for each day they had missed throughout the whole semester. Now I know what she did......"


Please go to the link and read the rest of his response. I actually should have made myself clearer.  At my uni, 5 unexcused absences = "F."  4 absences is no problem.  I very openly tell the students this at the beginning of the semester.  They can miss a few classes and I don't care, which is why I don't accept excuse papers for minor things  They have 4 "free-passes" already.  If they have a serious problem and are going to miss more than 4 classes, then I deal with them on an individual basis.  Anyway, I find that the students who miss more than 4 classes because they are sleeping in, or are hungover, or playing with their friends are the ones that will fail the class anyway based on their test and homework scores, so it kind of doesn't matter in the end.