Why I Never Ask Students to Turn in Assignments on Sundays

NATHAN A. FINN

When I started teaching almost two decades ago, the school hadn’t been using a learning management system (LMS) except in online courses. That changed soon after I joined the faculty. We were all trained in how to use the LMS. We learned to create electronic quizzes and tests, use discussion boards, and keep our gradebooks online, even for our in-person courses. The e-learning office encouraged us to devote more time in class to instruction and less time to assessments.

Around this time, many instructors moved away from requiring students to turn in physical copies of assignments in class, instead asking students to upload their papers into the LMS. Students didn’t have to turn in a physical paper at 10:00am on Tuesday, or even slide it under the professor’s office door by close of business. Instead, students could submit the paper electronically anytime, including over the weekend.

Many students seemed to appreciate this shift. In most cases, they had more time to read and write over the weekend than they did during the regular school week. Many professors, myself included, began requiring students to submit assignments by midnight on Sunday evening. This seemed intuitive, since the new school week began on Monday.

The first time I remember being troubled about this was when students who were members of my church started missing our weekly small group meetings. We met on Sunday evenings at our house for about 90 minutes. Students would skip because they were finishing (or beginning?) writing a paper that was due at midnight. If a student had papers in three classes due on three consecutive Sundays, we might not see her at all during that time.

I’ll admit my first impulse was to be frustrated that students so often procrastinated on their assignments. And to be clear, it still frustrates me when students procrastinate! But that wasn’t entirely fair. Yes, the students could’ve submitted those assignments early, or at least they could’ve budgeted their time better to prioritize small group participation. But the professors were the ones who set the due date for Sunday night. At least part of this was on us, not them.

I can’t remember the exact moment it happened, but eventually I stopped making Sunday the due date for assignments. In fact, I encouraged students to not think about my class at all on Sunday. And if they had assignments due on Sundays in other classes, I encouraged them to complete those assignments early so that they weren’t engaged in their schoolwork on Sundays.

I’m not a Christian sabbatarian of the sort one finds in the Reformed tradition. I disagree with the Westminster Confession of Faith, which calls Sundays the “Christian Sabbath” and says believers should “observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations.” There is precedent in the New Testament for new covenant believers gathering for public worship on Sundays. However, I don’t think a Christian is sinning if he eats lunch out at a restaurant after church, watches football, works a shift at his job, or, for that matter, writes a research paper. I interpret Colossians 2:16-17 to mean the old covenant Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ and that one’s personal practices and preferences are a matter of Christian conscience.

Though I’m not a Christian sabbatarian, I believe there is a sabbath principle in Scripture that reflects an important part of God’s design for human flourishing. Simply put, humans weren’t created for non-stop work. We aren’t machines. Productivity is not all there is to human life. Like the God who created us in his divine image and then rested on the seventh day, we are to rest regularly from our labors.

Many readers will know that Chick-fil-A is open six days a week, but is closed on Sundays. The founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathy, was a devout Christian who believed all employees should have a day each week to themselves. As a believer, Cathy hoped many of them would worship at a local church. But even if employees didn’t attend church, Cathy didn’t want work to claim all their time. They needed a day each week to rest from their regular labors.

I have adopted the Chick-fil-A approach in my classes. I want students engaged in my classes for several hours each week. This normally means three hours of time in class, plus several additional hours of required reading and other assignments. But I don’t want students thinking about my classes on Sundays, so I never require an assignment to be turned in that day. Like Truett Cathy, I want my believing students to gather with their local church. But even if a student isn’t a Christian, I want her to rest from my class at least one day each week.

You may have a different conviction about Sundays than I do. But regardless of what you think about the Lord’s Day, I want to leave faculty with two questions. First, are you encouraging your students to develop healthy rhythms of work and rest? Second, how can you structure your courses to help students cultivate those rhythms?

Nathan Finn is professor of Faith and Culture and executive director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership at North Greenville University.