When I finally gain the strength to go to school the day after being sick, I immediately regret it due to being bombarded by teachers asking to see my homework that was assigned the previous day.

I simply say I was sick, assuming that to be a legitimate excuse, but surprisingly enough I then found myself standing opposite a teacher with a straight face telling me that’s no reason not to have my homework.

When I’m home sick, lying in bed, trying to sleep, reaching for my Mac and logging into Edline to check on updates is definitely not a priority.

Although Edline does make it easier to check homework in case you forgot to write it down, or were asleep when they said it, it shouldn’t be used as a device to take points away for being under the weather.

Not only is it unreasonable to expect me to have been refreshing the page just in case the teacher put the homework up, but if I didn’t bring my books home I’m not going to wake up extra early (especially after being ill) to come in to school to retrieve them.

Some teachers expect me to be able to complete assignments on a unit I wasn’t there to learn, and I believe the cliché is: practice makes permanent…well, I don’t want to end up permanently doing it wrong because I misunderstood the material.

However, some teachers are very understanding about the ill fortune of missing a day of school and not only help me understand exactly what I missed, but they also give me time to catch up, knowing that their class isn’t the only one I missed.

Just because Edline is accessible to students from home doesn’t mean that the expectations should change for a student who missed school. Edline should solely be an extra tool to help students, as a last resort, to double check what their homework was.

After being sick I would love to arrive at BSM, go through my classes trying to get myself up to speed, and spend that night catching myself up on what work I missed. I don’t want to have to be already caught up the day I get back.