What was previously considered to be normal isn’t really the reality anymore. Students have so many different responsibilities and distractions that some believe they shouldn’t have to worry about their education and schoolwork during a time like this because they have so much on their plates.

     But school should still be high priority and taken as seriously as if it were any other school year. The majority of students are just as capable of doing their schoolwork as they were before, but they must choose to prioritize it.

     Students shouldn’t be able to just breeze past this school year with As and Bs by not putting in their best effort. Other students work hard to achieve their well-earned grades and class rank.

     The new late work and grading policy is going to challenge all of that by making it to where students can receive full credit for an assignment even if they turn it in weeks after the due date. That doesn’t seem fair, especially to students who do the assignments and turn them in on time. And it’s highly possible that a good portion of the student body is sitting at home choosing not to do the work on time knowing they can do it whenever they want to with little to no grade penalty.

     The leniency is understandable for students who are struggling due to being accountable for responsibilities in their home life like jobs, housework or taking care of younger siblings.

     Another harsh reality is that students’ school and home lives have collided, which can make the learning environment hard and stressful. And those stressful environments can make a student’s stress and anxiety worse when they’re trying to accomplish and do everything they need to for their home responsibilities and their schoolwork.

    Those types of feelings and situations can happen with students not even knowing that they’re mental issues which is what stress and anxiety are. But it can be a very serious problem and very hard to deal with in certain situations involving schoolwork.

     Those students deserve to get the help and attention that they need. But there are different approaches that can be taken to help individual students with that balance of home and school life because it shouldn’t be assumed that the entire student body can’t get the work completed and on time or are having the same family or health issues when many students are fully capable but are choosing not to do what is needed for school.

     The new grading and late work policy aids the lack of participation, and far more assignments will be turned in late and sloppily knowing it really can’t hurt their grades.

     The policy is setting students up for future failure. What kind of example is this? Students will think even if they do the work and don’t complete it correctly or up to teacher expectations that they deserve an A even with lack of effort and bare minimum participation.

     In the real world, that isn’t how colleges work. It’s not how careers are going to work. People can flunk out of college, and people can get fired from occupations. These blanket policies could make a lot of students overlook the concept of working hard to succeed and achieve great things in life. They should be applied on a case-by-case basis.

Editorial Cartoon by Rachael Mueller