I can has extra credit?

Yup, it's that time of year.

Last two weeks of the semester, the people who have been in 'sleep' mode all semester long suddenly wake up and freak out.

I had a pile of e-mails either "explaining" (in some cases with a valid excuse, in others, not) why the person had been absent so much. Or asking for help. Or asking to hand stuff in late. I had one e-mail that was in all lower case with no punctuation and in sort of that stream-of-consciousness run-on style that I believe Burroughs perfected (and if you're not William Burroughs, you should probably not use). The writer was informing me he needed for me to accept his homework late, as he was in a car 'reck' and 'i couldnt get a ride but im trying' and that he would - if I interpreted the e-mail right, as my brain tends to shut down in the absence of punctuation - get it to me first thing tomorrow.

(An aside: this is a student who wrote a paper, and turned several of the homework questions around to, arguing the legalization of pot. Now, I'm generally for allowing people to do what they will provided it doesn't hurt others or themselves too much, but I get a feeling from some of the discussions I've had with him, the pot use I suspect he indulges in is probably hurting him.)

All of these e-mails came in while I was in my last class of the day. After that class, one of the young ladies wanted a little input on the paper that is due next week (she had a rough draft for me and I had read it so she wanted to discuss it). I walked into my office and saw all the e-mails with student addresses on them and kind of sighed something like, "Well, it's that time of year" (the student who was with me, while not an A student, is someone with a strong sense of personal responsibility). I made some comment about how probably half the e-mails would be asking for extra credit and she kind of laughed and said, "I'd just delete them and claim they never arrived. I don't think I'd be able to put up with that junk."

Well, I can't do that, but I do (politely) respond saying extra credit is not an option at this point. (I refrain from observing that there is copious REGULAR credit during the course of the semester for a person to do a C or better, even if they're not a rocket scientist, but that ship has kind of sailed at this point).

I'm reminded, though, of this exchange from my beloved SpongeBob SquarePants:

(Mrs. Puff, wanting SpongeBob out of her boating class forever, has tried to give him extra credit so he will pass by the skin of his teeth):

Mrs. Puff: (as I remember, laughing sub-manaically) "You pass! You pass!"
SpongeBob: "But, Mrs. Puff, I don't feel like I really did anything."
Mrs. Puff: "That's how extra credit is supposed to feel!"

On a happier note? I'm grading a batch of exams from my most difficult class and they're markedly better than the last set. I guess people actually woke up and studied after some people received 30% or below on the previous exam.