The Dog Ate My Homework
The Dog Ate My Homework. I don't know if I actually heard it in school, but I know I've heard it in movies and television.
The Dog Ate My Homework.
What does that actually mean?
Translated, it means the student didn't turn their homework in and has expressed that their dog consumed it.
Of course! That's a pretty literal translation.
Another translation: the student decided not to do their homework and decided to blame it on an external entity (the dog).
There's a few scenarios with this:
1) the student actually has a dog. The student actually did the homework. The student left the homework out in reach of the dog, and the dog actually ate it (what a poorly trained animal. OR, what a dumb student for leaving your homework out, knowing your dog has a tendency to eat paper).
2) The student did the homework and lost it. The dog is easier to blame for this misfortune.
3) the student doesn't have a dog and didn't do his homework. He was flat out lying.
In any case, the student was ultimately responsible for turning in his homework. If the dog really ate it, he'd just have to do it all over again. If there's no dog, he just needed to sit down and do it.
Having only had a dog when I was too young to write, I wouldn't know what growing up with a dog in the house AND having to do homework was like. And I'm sure many pieces of homework have actually been eaten by dogs.
But most haven't.
Thinking about this phrase, I've concluded that it really translate as this:
"I did not take responsibility for my actions."
I, like almost all of the human race, have "blamed the dog" countless times. Because isn't it easier to blame something other than yourself? It's pretty rough saying, "ok, I admit it, I did or did not do such and such."
Watching kids, they do this. They will be playing and one will take another's toy and the teacher comes over and the kid who's lost the toy is screaming and the one who stole will point to ANYONE but himself(or herself, girls do this too!).
If the teacher didn't see what happened, they may believe the little stealer kid. And then they proceed to admonish the innocent bystander.
The little stealer is thinking, "I'm glad I didn't have to take that wrath from the teacher."
Because who likes to experience the wrath that ensues when we do something wrong?
That hurts. It's not fun. It makes us feel weird inside. No, no, not going to go there.
And at that moment, we are avoiding ourselves, and avoiding any opportunity for self growth.
At some point in my life, I started experimenting with "taking the blame." Not for other people's mishaps, but for my own. I wasn't going to let someone smooth it over for me. It was up to me to deal with it.
And that's scary sometimes. Facing that you've failed, or made what seems a bad choice. But if we avoid owning up to ourselves and our shortcomings, we are ultimately just doing ourselves a disfavor.
The more I've experienced owning up for myself, that is, taking responsibility for my thoughts and actions, the more I realized that this concept was in fact not scary but incredibly liberating.
Could it be that I have more control over my behavior than I once thought?
If I have control over my own behavior, doesn't that mean I can change my behavior for the better?
I don't need to worry about other people making choices for me. I don't need to allow them to make choices for me.
Now, of course I listen to other's thoughts and opinions!! I value the advice of others greatly.
But I make the final decision of what to do. Not because someone told me to or I am scared to do otherwise. Because I know it is the right thing to do. For myself.
So I try not to let the dog eat my homework. We are all human, and I am included (most certainly!).
But I can choose several options with my "dog."
1) I can choose not to have a dog in the first place.
2) I can train the dog to behave.
3) I can understand that the dog is an external force that has bearing on my actions to the extent that I allow it.
So there we are. Dog Ate My Homework? Complicated concept, or simple? Get this: it's up to you to decide.
The Dog Ate My Homework.
What does that actually mean?
Translated, it means the student didn't turn their homework in and has expressed that their dog consumed it.
Of course! That's a pretty literal translation.
Another translation: the student decided not to do their homework and decided to blame it on an external entity (the dog).
There's a few scenarios with this:
1) the student actually has a dog. The student actually did the homework. The student left the homework out in reach of the dog, and the dog actually ate it (what a poorly trained animal. OR, what a dumb student for leaving your homework out, knowing your dog has a tendency to eat paper).
2) The student did the homework and lost it. The dog is easier to blame for this misfortune.
3) the student doesn't have a dog and didn't do his homework. He was flat out lying.
In any case, the student was ultimately responsible for turning in his homework. If the dog really ate it, he'd just have to do it all over again. If there's no dog, he just needed to sit down and do it.
Having only had a dog when I was too young to write, I wouldn't know what growing up with a dog in the house AND having to do homework was like. And I'm sure many pieces of homework have actually been eaten by dogs.
But most haven't.
Thinking about this phrase, I've concluded that it really translate as this:
"I did not take responsibility for my actions."
I, like almost all of the human race, have "blamed the dog" countless times. Because isn't it easier to blame something other than yourself? It's pretty rough saying, "ok, I admit it, I did or did not do such and such."
Watching kids, they do this. They will be playing and one will take another's toy and the teacher comes over and the kid who's lost the toy is screaming and the one who stole will point to ANYONE but himself(or herself, girls do this too!).
If the teacher didn't see what happened, they may believe the little stealer kid. And then they proceed to admonish the innocent bystander.
The little stealer is thinking, "I'm glad I didn't have to take that wrath from the teacher."
Because who likes to experience the wrath that ensues when we do something wrong?
That hurts. It's not fun. It makes us feel weird inside. No, no, not going to go there.
And at that moment, we are avoiding ourselves, and avoiding any opportunity for self growth.
At some point in my life, I started experimenting with "taking the blame." Not for other people's mishaps, but for my own. I wasn't going to let someone smooth it over for me. It was up to me to deal with it.
And that's scary sometimes. Facing that you've failed, or made what seems a bad choice. But if we avoid owning up to ourselves and our shortcomings, we are ultimately just doing ourselves a disfavor.
The more I've experienced owning up for myself, that is, taking responsibility for my thoughts and actions, the more I realized that this concept was in fact not scary but incredibly liberating.
Could it be that I have more control over my behavior than I once thought?
If I have control over my own behavior, doesn't that mean I can change my behavior for the better?
I don't need to worry about other people making choices for me. I don't need to allow them to make choices for me.
Now, of course I listen to other's thoughts and opinions!! I value the advice of others greatly.
But I make the final decision of what to do. Not because someone told me to or I am scared to do otherwise. Because I know it is the right thing to do. For myself.
So I try not to let the dog eat my homework. We are all human, and I am included (most certainly!).
But I can choose several options with my "dog."
1) I can choose not to have a dog in the first place.
2) I can train the dog to behave.
3) I can understand that the dog is an external force that has bearing on my actions to the extent that I allow it.
So there we are. Dog Ate My Homework? Complicated concept, or simple? Get this: it's up to you to decide.
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