It was my fault that on Jan. 19, I woke up late and had to choose between drinking five cups of coffee and checking my e-mail. I decided against the e-mail. It was my fault I sat through an obscene hour and a half of traffic that morning before I got to school and saw the dreaded yellow note outside Room L42. It might even been my fault I drove through 15 miles of rain, hail and fierce wind that morning.

That being said, and speaking as a highly motivated student, I believe instructors should not have to inform us of their absence through the use of an automated phone system. I don’t care if it is just as easy as submitting a grade.

Teaching is a profession I hold to a very high regard. Our instructors should not have to deal with any unnecessary stress. They have to wake up every day and check their e-mail, take their kids to school, prepare their lectures, read the newspaper, eat breakfast, shower, and drink at least five cups of coffee before coming to class.

I know damn right the majority of De Anza students wake up in the morning and do the exact same thing, with the exception of maybe checking their Facebook pages to see which friends left them photo comments while they were sleeping. I know because I am one of these students.

Anywhere from 6 to 9 a.m., Monday through Thursday, I wake up and check my Facebook, my e-mail, my online banking account, my Flickr, my Twitter and my Livejournal blog (and occasionally Myspace when nostalgia strikes). I even lightly copyedit stories that I have written for the book that Coree J. Hogan, multimedia extraordinaire, and I are writing together.

Yes – the phone system might be as easy as A, B, C, D or F, but we are all adults. If we don’t start to claiming responsibility for something as minute as a canceled class, how are we going to deal with the obstacles that face us in the world outside of De Anza’s classrooms?