What Lesson Should Students Learn?

This week my Honors Freshman English students completed their research papers, and they were to submit them online at 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning.  While I am ecstatic that 100% of my papers were turned in on Tuesday, nearly 30% of those papers were considered late.

"Mrs. Neill, I can't find one of my note cards."

"Mrs. Neill, I closed my computer before my paper uploaded, so it didn't upload on time, but I promise I didn't make any changes."

"Mrs. Neill I printed my paper instead of turning it in online, is it still late?"

"Mrs. Neill, I only had to fix my title, and I forgot to resubmit my paper."

True statements from some really great kids that tugged at my heart strings, but the fact of the matter was that the papers WERE late.  What a horrible feeling for them, but they had to own it.  They had to know what that felt like.  It is through failure and missed opportunities that we truly learn - we remember that bitter taste in our mouths.  But you see, this is where my struggle began.  We had worked on these research papers for 6 weeks.  It was as much a learning process as it was a paper, and I hated the fact that students would be penalized 10% for turning in a paper late, even if I could go in and prove that they did not make any changes to their work after the 8:15 a.m. deadline.  

The best collaboration happens in the hallway, so I walked down to talk to Mrs. Moler, one of our awesome science teachers, and asked her opinion.  I told her about the late papers, but then I proceeded to tell her about my idea.  I wanted them to feel that "failure" for a day, but I wanted them to have the opportunity to reflect and earn the credit back.  I wanted them to answer two questions:

What thoughts or emotions did you feel once you realized that your paper was late?  Why?  Please explain two thoughts or emotions in your response?

What do you currently do to remember when tasks need to be completed? Is there anything you would do differently? Explain.

Mrs. Moler agreed with my idea, but then she added one more thought that turned into this question:

List three instances, outside of school assignments, when firm deadlines will result in negative outcomes.  Talk to other teachers or your parents if you are struggling to think of examples.  What would you possibly miss out on if this happens in the future?

What is it that I want my students to learn? I want them to know my room is a safe place to fail or make mistakes, but with failure and mistakes comes consequences. As a result, those three questions are due in an essay by Monday. My students will think about their actions, and they will most likely not turn in late projects again. I hope they will look back at this (while they are not happy about it now), and realize that this was much more beneficial to them than taking a 10% deduction for their papers being 3 minutes late. There will come a point in time when they realize that late means late, and that will result in a loss of an opportunity. But you've got to know what failure tastes like to know the sweetness of success. However, success may have to come with a little more work.

The lesson in all of this will be bigger for some of them than they can process right now, but this is the lesson that I want them to learn. What does an arbitrary 10% off teach them? I am interested to see what they write about, but must of all, I am glad they are learning.