When students ask us, as they occasionally do, “I wasn't in class yesterday. Did I miss anything important?” most of us feel at least a bit of disrespect and some aggravation. If we take the question at face value, it implies that the student thinks at least some of what we do in class might not actually be important. Judging from a search of online forums, instructors' responses range from genuine interest in helping students understand what they missed and how to make up for it, to contempt exemplified by sarcastic comments such as, “No, since you weren't present we just filled time until the class was over.” The former response was illustrated in a 2014 article in The Teaching Professor, by Rocky Dailey, who also noted that some absences may be considered more legitimate than others (e.g., due to a student's participating in an institution-sanctioned activity rather than just deciding not to show up). In those cases, I may feel more inclined to give the student some of my time and effort to help make up for the absence.
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