the dog ate my homework matteo neri

Where Did The Phrase “The Dog Ate My Homework” Come From?

Dogs are known as man’s best friend. Dogs keep us safe, are hard workers … and can provide a handy excuse in a pinch. Maybe that’s why versions of the classic expression the dog ate my homework have been around for hundreds of years.

Today, the dog ate my homework is used as a stock example of the kind of silly excuses schoolchildren give for why their work isn’t finished. Very rarely do people say, “the dog ate my homework” and expect it to be taken literally; they use the expression as an example of a typically flimsy excuse.

So where did the phrase come from?

Forrest Wickman, a writer for Slate , describes the legend of the 6th-century Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise as the alleged first recorded “the dog ate my homework” story. According to the tale, Saint Ciarán had a tame young fox that would take his writings to his master for him. One day, the fox grew up and decided to eat the leather strap binding the writings together instead. Still, this tale is more Garden-of-Eden parable and less terrible schoolchild excuse.

The notion that dogs will eat just about anything, including paper, turns up in lots of stories over the centuries. An example comes from The Humors of Whist , published in 1808 in Sporting Magazine . In the story, the players are sitting around playing cards when one of them remarks that their companion would have lost the game had the dog not eaten the losing card. Good boy.

Some attribute the creation of the dog ate my homework to a joke that was going around at the beginning of the 20th century. In a tale found as far back as an 1894 memoir by Anglican priest Samuel Reynolds Hole, a preacher gives a shortened version of a sermon because a dog got into his study and ate some of the pages he had written. However, the clerk loved it because they had been wanting the preacher to shorten his sermons for years.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first example of the dog ate my homework excuse in print can be found in a speech given by retiring headmaster James Bewsher in 1929 and published in the Manchester Guardian : “It is a long time since I have had the excuse about the dog tearing up the arithmetic homework.” The way this comment is phrased suggests that the whole dog ate my homework story had been around for some time before it was put in print.

When was the word homework created?

But in order for a dog to eat homework specifically, homework had to be invented (oh, and how we wish it hadn’t been). True, the word homework , as in what we call today housework , appears as early as 1653. But homework , as in school exercises to be done at home, isn’t found until 1852. Once we had homework , it was only a matter of time before the dog was accused of eating it.

How we use this phrase now

No matter the origin, sometime in the 1950s, the expression became set as the dog ate my homework . This inspired any number of riffs on the theme, like my cow ate my homework or my brother ate my homework . In the 1960s, the dog ate my homework continued to gain popularity. The expression popped up a couple times in politics over the years, like when President Reagan said to reporters in 1988, “I had hoped that we had marked the end of the ‘dog-ate-my-homework’ era of Congressional budgetry … but it was not to be.”

It seems unlikely that the dog ate my homework was ever used consistently or frequently by actual schoolchildren. In fact, it’s the unlikeliness of the story that makes it so funny and absurd as a joke. Instead, teachers and authority figures appear to have cited the dog ate my homework many times over the years as such a bad excuse they can’t believe students are really using it.

In the 21st century, students don’t spend as much time working with physical pen and paper as they once did. That may contribute to the decline in the use of the phrase. So, maybe soon we’ll see a new equally absurd phrase pop up. Come on Zoomers, you’ve got this.

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From Our Listeners

Sometimes the dog really does eat your homework.

Last week, we brought you the story of how the phrase "The Dog Ate My Homework" came to be and how it morphed into a palpably ridiculous excuse. Turns out, sometimes its not an excuse at all. Weekend Edition host Scott Simon has a few stories from our listeners that swear, honest, the dog did eat their homework.

Copyright © 2012 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Dear Students,

I taught my first freshman composition class more than 40 years ago. Your class is my last.

We began the semester with 36 students. I predicted on the first day that I would probably wind up giving grades to half that many. Had I been more strict about dropping people whose attendance was erratic and whose assignments weren’t coming in, I would have been right. But I let lots of students slide. I didn’t drop people who weren’t showing up, nor did I drop the people who weren’t doing the work. That was no favor because now I’m forced to give grades that will narrow future options for people who might have gone further, had they only tried. If you were one of the students who missed more than five or six classes, or who failed to turn in most of the assignments, you need to ask yourself if you’re making good use of your time. There are always excuses for not showing up, or not turning work in. I’ve heard them all. But lives built on excuses generally don’t turn out well.

There were a handful of people in this class who made it here every day, always with the assigned writing completed. If I were an employer, these are the people I would want as employees.

But I have never liked to think of myself as working to provide a screening process for your future bosses. I like to think I’m working for you, and helping build your futures as more fully realized human beings. In that light, some of you have failed this semester. You’ve failed yourselves. As a result, some of you learned very little and showed no discernible improvement in your writing, wasting your time and mine.

I never find it pleasant or productive to guilt-trip students. But if just one of you reads these words and decides to take your education a bit more seriously, it was worth writing them.

Few people care whether you succeed or fail. You are not showing up to class for your teachers or even your parents. You’re not doing these assignments for anyone but yourselves. If you cut classes because your teachers bore you, then you should be dropping those classes, not piddling away your GPA.

I went to a community college too. I screwed up in high school, graduating in the bottom third of my class. But I married and became a father not long thereafter. Those responsibilities made me quite serious about the second chance offered by the community college system. It’s difficult to maintain a slacker attitude when you’re up nightly with 2 o’clock feedings of an infant daughter whose vulnerability and dependence on you are impossible to overlook. Had I not shown up regularly and done the work conscientiously, I would have blown that second chance. I would have had a much different life, a much poorer one, not only materially but intellectually and even spiritually. And my children would have had poorer lives too, because what I learned in college was shared with them in ways too numerous to count. I’ve never regretted the portion of my youth that I devoted to study.

And I’ve never regretted spending so much of my adult life teaching in community colleges. I’m glad I was able to help some of my students get their own second chances. Most of the people who attend community colleges have very little handed to them. We are not favored by wealth or connections. Unlike the Donald Trumps of the world, those born to the mansion, the way is not made easy for us. So it is something of a crime against our very selves when we squander the second chance when it is offered.

Some of you did just that this semester, throwing away time and opportunity. If next semester provides another opportunity, I hope you will seize it. Life has a way of getting serious with us well before some of us decide to get serious with it. By that time, it may be too late to build the life you might have wanted.

And if you don’t know just what it is you do want, drop out of school until you figure it out. If you misuse your time here, you will erode the chance you have for a more hopeful future. In the papers you wrote, I occasionally pointed out cliches in your prose. In this note to you, however, I have turned myself into a living cliche, an old teacher scolding the young for lack of seriousness. But ignore the hectoring of an old man who has traveled the road that lies ahead of you and you could become your own living cliche — the loser who squandered opportunity. My hope is that you do not.

Jaime O’Neill is a writer in Northern California.

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The dog ate my homework!

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The Dog Ate My Homework Season 4 Episodes

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Two teams fight it out to dodge detention, and put the cool back into school, in a mischievous mix of tongue-in-cheek comedy, off-the-wall questions, nonsensical studio games and slapstick challenges.

Season 4 Episode Guide

13 Episodes 2016 - 2017

Fri, Nov 4, 2016 30 mins

Two teams fight it out to dodge detention. Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Tiah and Noah and special guests Matthew Crosby, Lauren Layfield, Dominique Moore and Saima Chowdhury, who battle it out in a series of rounds and challenges guaranteed to make you laugh.

Fri, Nov 11, 2016 30 mins

Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Sara and Mykee-D as well as special guests Sam and Mark, Dodge T Dog and Sam Battersea. They battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges guaranteed to make you laugh.

Fri, Nov 18, 2016 30 mins

Two teams fight it out to dodge detention. Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Charlotte and Harrison and special guests Johnny and Inel, Phil Wang and Jess Robinson, who battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges.

Fri, Nov 25, 2016 30 mins

Two teams fight it out to dodge detention. Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Toby and Daisy and special guests Ben Shires, Suzi Ruffell, Stu Goldsmith and Bec Hill, who battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges.

Matteo v Aisha

Fri, Dec 2, 2016 30 mins

In this episode he'll be joined by child team captains Matteo and Aisha and special guests Susan Calman, Dodge, Chris Johnson and Leo who'll battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges guaranteed to make you laugh.

Sat, Dec 10, 2016 30 mins

In this episode he is joined by child team captains Isaac and Grace and special guests Johnny and Inel, Steve Bugeja and Katia Kvinge who battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges guaranteed to make you laugh.

Fri, Jan 13, 2017 30 mins

Two teams fight it out to dodge detention. Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Luca and Amara and special guests Lauren Layfield, Matthew Crosby, Dan Wright and Marlon Davis, who battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges.

Episode 8Episode 9

Fri, Jan 20, 2017 30 mins

Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Poppy and Ben and special guests Katie Thistleton, Stu Goldsmith, Ivo Graham and Suzi Ruffell, who battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges

Fri, Jan 27, 2017 30 mins

Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Lian and Cody and special guests Hacker T Dog, Ellie Taylor, Ricky Martin and Radzi Chinyanganya, who battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges.

Fri, Feb 3, 2017 30 mins

Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Asante v George and special guests Chris Johnson, Dominique Moore, Tom Allen and Luke Kempner, who battle it out in a series of hilarious new rounds and challenges.

Sports Day Special - Kitty v Olive

Fri, Feb 10, 2017 30 mins

Iain Stirling presents a special sports day episode of The Dog Ate My Homework. He is joined by child team captains Kitty and Olive and special guests Ed Petrie, Naomi Wilkinson, Tom Craine and Richard David-Caine.

Fri, Feb 17, 2017 30 mins

Fri, Feb 24, 2017 30 mins

Two teams fight it out to dodge detention. Iain Stirling is joined by child team captains Honey and Callum and special guests Saima Chowdhury, Ahir Shah, Charlie Baker and Rory Crawford, who battle it out in a series of hilarious rounds and challenges.

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My Dog Ate My Homework

From the book The Biggest Burp Ever

My dog ate my homework. That mischievous pup got hold of my homework and gobbled it up.

My dog ate my homework. It’s gonna be late. I guess that the teacher will just have to wait.

My dog ate my homework. He swallowed it whole. I shouldn’t have mixed it with food in his bowl.

 — Kenn Nesbitt

Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Reading Level: Grade 1 Topics: Animal Poems , School Poems Poetic Techniques: Irony , Narrative Poems Word Count: 60

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THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK

Players will pick a drawing, put it in the dog’s mouth, crank its ear, then collect the shreds out of the other end. Then, they will try to unscramble the shredded homework and correctly guess the image in order to turn it in before the deadline and win the game.

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