Liar Liar Pants on Fire

One of my favorite lines from a student last term was, "Teachuhh, I'm Pinocchio!" At the beginning of every class I check their homework. I expect their "chunk books" to be out on their desks so when I come around I don't have to ask every student for their book. One student, Luke, never had his book out. Sometimes it was because he didn't do his homework and other times he would pretend like he didn't have it and then right as I would walk away he would say, "Teacchuhh, I'm Pinocchio!" and would whip his book out for me to check. It made me laugh every time.

Well, earlier this week I found out that one of my students was telling major lies. His name should be Pinocchio and his nose would be as long as the bridge to Key West. He hadn't been doing his homework all week because "his grandfather passed away and he was busy with family stuff." Ok, I let it slide because that's a pretty good excuse for not completing your homework.

Well, later I found out that his mom called the Korean staff and was upset that we (the teachers) hadn't said anything about JW not doing his homework. My co-teacher explained to the mother that she didn't want to bother her because of "what happened." The mother obviously had no idea what she was talking about and so my co-teacher told her what JW said. The mother blew up and said that he died 13 years ago... keep in mind that the little boy is probably eight years old. Another teacher made a joke that the boy didn't really lie because his grandfather did die... only a long time ago. The end result, JW came to class today with the past eight lessons of homework done and I'm sure he hasn't heard the end of it at home.