I start the year with the same promise to my students. The only way to fail my class is to not do the work. I meet with nervous parents at the beginning of the year; their student doesn't read well and they often have poor grades in reading. I console them and tell them this year will be different. Just because they don't read well doesn't mean they won't do well in my class.
My class is a lot of work. We read- A LOT. In class and out. We practice for standardized testing. We do short assignments. We do big projects. We do in class work and out of class work. We write stories and we take tests. Everyone is bad at one of those (even if it is just relative). Being bad, even awful, at one of those isn't enough to kill your grade. They all balance each other out. AND I allow students to correct EVERYTHING for half credit. So even if you are bad at something, you can improve it. Now take into consideration that I offer weekly extra credit and it should be fairly easy to pass my class, right?
Unfortunately, that is not the case. I fail quite a few students every semester. Those kids all have one thing in common. They don't do work when it is due. I have a very strict late work policy. That gets kids in trouble. The kids that fail my class don't do work when it is assigned and I don't accept it after the very short grace period.
I don't believe allowing students to turn in late work benefits them in any way, at least not long term. If you get into the habit of doing things late, such as paying bills or performing a task your boss asks you to complete, life gets hard very quickly. School is intended to prepare students for life and allowing them to complete work at will does them an injustice. In addition, if directions are not followed and details are not attended to, the work will not be graded. Doing work in a timely manner is a major life skill, as is doing it the right way.
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