Let Them Be Human: How Teaching with Compassion Starts with Your Syllabus
One of the simplest and most powerful ways to support student success is to include a flexibility clause in your syllabus, a short statement that recognizes students as whole human beings navigating complex lives. College students today juggle multiple responsibilities, including work, caregiving, health challenges, and mental health struggles. A flexibility clause doesn’t lower expectations or compromise academic integrity. Instead, it communicates compassion and trust, creating space for communication when life inevitably gets in the way.
A well-crafted flexibility clause signals to students that you understand they may occasionally need support. It invites them to reach out if something prevents them from meeting a deadline or attending class, and it outlines how they can do so. This kind of clause reduces anxiety and encourages students to advocate for themselves rather than disengage or disappear.
For example, my Life Happens Clause reads as follows:
"Life happens to all of us. Despite our best efforts, some days nothing seems to go right. Your car breaks down on the way to school, you run out of the house without something and have to go back despite the fact that you were already running late, your boss calls you into work, or your child is sick and you have to go pick them up from daycare/school. Or, you get so overwhelmed that everything seems too much to deal with.
If this happens to you, please email me. We will figure out what to do to keep you on track in the course. Whether that means extra tutoring sessions, deadline extensions, or something else. Please don’t suffer in silence. I want to help out, you just need to let me know what is going on. You have 4 (four) no-questions-asked due date extensions for the semester, all you need to do is let me know you need an extension."
Research shows that students are more likely to persist in courses where they feel respected and understood (Cavanagh et al., 2018; Felton & Lambert, 2020; Rendon, 1994; and Tinto, 1993). A flexibility clause contributes to an inclusive classroom climate, especially for students who might not otherwise feel empowered to speak up. Importantly, you can still set boundaries such as asking for advance notice when possible, or offering a limited number of “grace days”, as I have in the example above.
Flexibility doesn’t mean chaos. It means acknowledging that learning happens in the context of real life. I began including my Life Happens Clause in all my syllabi in 2020 and I rarely have students who use it for extensions more than once in a semester, and generally have less than a dozen times when a student asks for an extension. I also notice that students are more likely to feel comfortable emailing me to ask about any issue they might be having in the course.
Including a flexibility clause in your syllabus is a small but powerful step toward a more compassionate, student-centered classroom and it can increase trust, motivation, and success for everyone.
Cavanagh, S. R., Chen, X., Couch, B. A., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2018). Trust, growth mindset, and student commitment to active learning in a college science course. CBE Life Sciences Education, 17(1), ar10. [https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-06-0107](https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-06-0107)
Felten, P., & Lambert, L. M. (2020). Relationship-rich education: How human connections drive success in college. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Rendón, L. I. (1994). Validating culturally diverse students: Toward a new model of learning and student development. Innovative Higher Education, 19(1), 33–51. [https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191156](https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191156)
Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.