As teachers we’ve heard a lot of excuses, haven’t we? I think younger students are more likely to give you the straight scoopie. If parents only knew the things we hear!
Older students have a tendency to be a bit more creative—sometimes too creative for their own good. For instance, take Robbie, the red-headed whirlwind who prompted me to promise myself I’d never name my child Robbie. Robbie’s “dog” ate homework, peed on homework, dunked homework in mud puddles, and so on. Come to find out Robbie didn’t even have a dog!
 I thought of Robbie last night as I considered the phone call I’ll make this morning to my dentist. “I think my dog ate it” is the only explanation I have. You see, my mouth guard suspiciously disappeared yesterday and I’m quite certain my pooch, Lexie, had something to do with it! (I’m basing my assumption on Lexie’s past interest in this uniquely formed piece of plastic.) If Lexie didn’t eat my mouth guard, she gets a gold star for a successful stash. Either way, I’m without a mouth guard, which isn’t good for a skilled tooth grinder! |
Since excuses are on my mind, it seems the perfect time to ask you to share some creative excuses you’ve heard as a teacher! No doubt you’ve heard some whoppers!
Smiles,
Diane
“We had to go to the store last night.” (My response: Going to the store doesn’t take all night)
“My baby brother/sister/cousin got my homework and ripped it/colored on it.”
“My mom threw away my homework. She thought it was garbage.” (I LOVE this one!! =D )
I work with 4-year-olds. They tend to be honest & tell me EXACTLY what happened. I cannot print some of the things I’ve heard!
My favorite is my dog chewed it up, and they brought me the chewed up paper!
I also work with 4-year-olds. This isn’t an excuse, but I’ll never forget asking one girl why she hadn’t been at preschool the previous day. She told me about the “sleepover” her mother had with her boyfriend.
I couldn’t do my homework last night because my snake ate it.
My currant job is working with 3 yr olds who tend to be pretty honest. My preveious job was working with Special needs and they are pretty honest also. I remeber waiting with a little girl after school for her dad to pick her up. I stated to her that daddy must be running a little late. Her response was “which daddy”. I said what do you mean and she rsponded my real daddy or my fake daddy. This took me by surprise becasue I knew her mother and father were married an living together. Well it turned out to be mom who picked her up along with an unfamilar man. The litttle girl looked at me and said this is my fake daddy. The fake daddy was very clearly momma’s boyfriend. It is so sad to see some of the homes children come from. In th case of this child the 3 adults were delayed too. some children don’t stand a chance.
With 4 year olds you get the truth most of the time. The excuses come from the parent. My favorite was when a parent complained to another teacher that I did not give her notice that her daughter was going to be in a program. The information was in 5 different places in the child’s folder and posted on every door around the school. When this was pointed out her response was I never read those. I have heard some real winners, like I didn’t come to school yesterday because my mommy had too much wine and we had homework I did not see any homework- it is in the front pocket of their folder the best part the child got the work out did it and put it back.
My favorite all time came from a parent. The parent sent a note that read: “She cannot do her homework because you said you would supply all of her school supplies and you have not sent any supplies home with her! Of course, that was not what I had said. I had said I would supply pencils, glue, crayons, and paper AT school.
“My mom recycled my homework”, which was true!
Her is one from one of my “happy” 5th graders. “I was doing my homework on the way to my baseball practice and it flew out the window” Well I guess there was no more paper to be found anywhere to REDO IT!!
A note about the child’s behavior that day was sent home for the parents to sign and return. It came back alright, but, it was signed in yellow crayon and printed. The reason in crayon and printed was mommie didn’t know cursive yet!
Here’s another take on an excuse. On night I had taken work home to be graded. Our puppy at the time decided to chew it up, so the next day, I had to go into the class and tell them, “I’m sorry, but my dog ate your homework!” 🙂
My saddest excuse I remember was from when I taught 4th grade and one of my best students was very upset to let me know he didn’t have his homework. He could not do it because the police were there to take his father and mother away because they were dealing drugs and he had to lay on the ground for an hour so he was out of the way. He had to go and stay with his aunt.