Recently, Psychology Today reported the following:

How do Students cope with procrastination? They Lie!

College students admit that at least 70% of their excuses for missed assignments are lies. A survey also found that instructors almost always accept students' excuses at face value, thus enabling chronic procrastinators.

Students' explanations tend toward health or computer problems, though the death of grandparents is a perennial fallback.

Some students indicated they enjoyed hoodwinking instructors, but most of the 224 students surveyed reported feeling guilty about lying.

None, however said the guilt would prevent them from fibbing in the future.

In a recent news report Congressman Dick Armey of Texas was asked if he would have resigned if he had been guilty of what President Clinton had done (the Lewinsky affair). Armey responded:

If I had done what Clinton did, I would be lying on the floor in a pool of blood, looking up at my wife who would ask: "How do I reload this thing?"

It seems that our tendency to excuse irresponsible behavior is somehow embedded in the very fabric of our society. Our tendency to rescue or enable others in victim or dishonest behavior is unfortunate. Many are, however, trying to bring it to public awareness. These stories remind us of the teenager, who learned while in a prison bootcamp, that "People who care, don't let us off the hook." Wisdom from one who learned the hard way!