Teacher Goes Viral After Dog Eats Students’ Homework
A teacher has gone viral for a hilarious picture showing their dog eating students' homework assignments that needed grading.
“My dog ate my homework” is the universal phrase dubbed by schoolchildren who show up to class with unfinished assignments. But what happens to educators who truly lose a pile of students’ work needing graded thanks to a hungry family dog? This is exactly what happened to one school teacher, and their documentation of the incident has spread across the internet, creating a viral hit.
A Reddit user took to the Dog subreddit community to share a photo of her husky-looking dog surrounded by chewed-up papers strewn across the kitchen floor. The picture came with a caption reading, “When you’re a teacher and your dog eats everyone’s homework.” With plenty of comments and over 1,100 upvotes, the picture quickly garnered amasses of internet praise and witty remarks.
Some pointed out the irony, asking the teacher if they told the classroom why they were unable to grade the assignment. Some even questioned whether or not the dog was the culprit, or if possibly the teacher simply didn’t want to take the time to grade all of those homework assignments. Another quipped at the situation, saying that the teacher should use the incident as a reason to give everyone in class “good marks.”
The age-old homework glib has been used by students as an excuse for a long time and is used throughout societies for other references in sarcastic retort. It is not clear where and when the phrase started, but some say that it was coined in 1905. The Cambrian, a historic Welsh-American magazine published a story that year in which a music critic recounted when a young minister lost half of his sermon to his pooch.
While coined as an excuse for why students fail to hand in homework, some truth lies in the phrase. Dogs are known to chew up anything and everything, as looks to be the case with this teacher. John Steinback, the author of the beloved novel Of Mice and Men is rumored to have suffered from this tragedy when his Irish Setter tore apart half of the book’s original manuscript.
Pertaining to actual homework assignments, many canines have been known to gobble on apparently-tasty class work. A few years back, a Philippines student similarly went viral after sharing a video of his dogs’ feast of school papers. The footage was caught by cameras while the boys slept, and they were confused by the situation until they viewed the camera footage later.
Taking the homework phrase to a more serious concern, the anecdotal picture evokes sentiments surrounding homework and the burden it can place on teachers and students alike. There are growing calls to cut back on the amount of at-home assignments students are given, as it interferes with home life and can place children under avoidable stressors. Also, added assignments and grading lead to extensive teacher burnout, as many educators complain of working long hours into the night at home.
It remains unclear whether or not this viral picture from Reddit is the real deal. In reality, it could just be someone having fun with the long-lived homework phrase. But what is known, is that it’s bringing a much-needed smile to the faces of many educators and students.
