Hi Glenn, Simply put, we must always factor in a sense of humanness for our students. As you mentioned we have all been there at one time or another, with sick kids, car trouble or whatever. We need to help the students through these problems and help keep them focused on why they are in school in the first place. We must also make sure our help is help and not be just an enabler. For my nontraditional students in many cases they were looking for an enabler not a helper. I worked very hard to help them through the troubled times while allowing them to identify their own solutions to many of their problems. Gary