Advice for first-year teachers: Don't be a sucker!

I know it's common for first-year teachers to assume that students have some credibility but the reality is that you cannot trust everything a student tells you to your face.

An adolescent is quite possibly the most manipulative organism on the face of the planet.  They lie, they cry, they feign illness, they will look you square in the eyes with their puppy-dog looks and expect you to cave.

Under no circumstances are you as an educator to give into these schemes.  There's a rule in the business world called the ABC's.  Always be closing.  You're either selling your students on a reason to learn and put forth their best effort, or they're selling you their best excuses for a lesser standard for themselves.  Either way, a sale is made.  Don't be the sucker to buy their ridiculous excuses.

I tell students that the worst thing they could do to me is lie to my face.  The profession of teaching teaches you to determine who is lying and who is not lying pretty easily.  You get a lot of practice...

Students who lie to my face, to get around things they're supposed to be doing, usually end up getting screwed by the system.  And when I point this out they learn that lying probably wasn't the best course of action.  It's a waste of their time and energy to fabricate a false reality - so they end up confessing things to me instead.

The student who continues to lie in spite of my ability to spot the crappy alibis is the student who gets the least amount of support later on in life.  You can't live your life through a series of lies because you undermine the value of your words.  The last thing you need is for people to stop listening to you when you have a legitimate problem because you've made a habit of telling lies when it's not necessary.

Sort of reminds you of the boy who cried wolf...

In any case, if you're teaching and you are in your first-year, don't cave in to your student's nonsensical stories.  Ask for notarized or official documents.  Went to the bathroom?  Where's the SSA who witnessed you?  Came from the nurse?  Get a pass!  Had to go to a doctor's appointment?  Get a note!  You were hospitalized for 6 weeks?  BULLSHIT!

Don't buy student bullshit.  It stinks and it has no value.  You give it value by buying it, if anything you give up your own dignity by buying their bullshit excuses for not doing what they're supposed to.