Last day of school before the holiday

Dear Teacher,

I couldn’t help but notice that heaping bounty of gifts on your desk today.  Especially when you decided to open them all with the children seated around you like a second-grade baby shower. Here is what I will be giving you this Christmas season:
Your salary
Love,
Mrs. W.
UPDATE: OK, you guys, I’m joking. I always give the teachers a gift.  When I want to.  Not on Christmas and not every single time the room mother asks me to which is once a month, I swear (and, call me chintzy, but I encourage my kids to make the teacher a present).  I think teachers are great and they should earn lots more money. So lighten up, people.
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18 thoughts on “Last day of school before the holiday

  1. Amen Sister! I can’t believe she opened the gifts in front of her class?! What’s up with that!? A couple of years ago I went to writing a lovely, handwritten, thank you on a Merry Christmas card. Period. All this obligation is ridiculous.

  2. I feel sorry for them having to drag all that Christmas/teacher crap home! Can you imagine all the regifting a teacher does in her lifetime? Endless supply of visiting teaching gifts…unless it’s an apple of sorts, and that would be a dead giveaway on the regift!

  3. I actually feel delighted to give my son’s teacher gifts because I totally appreciate all she does, even though she gets a salary. It took a lot just for him to get that particular teacher, and I’m extremely grateful. I feel she deserves of a little token of my gratitude for the hours and hours she spends teaching my child and dealing with him and the rest of the class, quite nicely. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t expect gifts either. If they do, that’s not very nice.

    Your child’s teacher should have opened them later.

  4. Well, having been a teacher, I can attest that 1) your salary is crap. You make about $5 an hour after all the work you put in. 2) Every gift is welcome, not only for the gift but for the gratitude it represents in a largely thankless, unappreciated job (know how glad you are when DH surprises you with a thank you card or unsolicited gift? Same idea), 3) it’s tacky to open them in front of the kids, which might make some feel bad or cause needless comparisons 4) I certainly don’t think they are required and I never felt bad towards kids who didn’t give me gifts. But I really appreciated the maybe 10% who did.

  5. I simply give the same thing every year…a box of tylenol, chapstick, and some handwarmers.

    I would let her know how dang tacky that was, I’d be giving nothing too!

  6. We have two teachers that go above and beyond this year. They have paid for many things out of their own pockets because it hasn’t been in the budget. They’ve called or emailed me at 7:00 at night before. I always give something, even if it’s only classroom supplies or a note of thanks and appreciation. They are so underpaid, it’s sad. In this country we pay a fortune to people to entertain us, but hardly anything to the people teaching our children.

    But I agree, she probably shouldn’t open them during class so others who didn’t get her anything wouldn’t feel bad.

  7. I hear ya! I do admit that I am a gifter, though. (soap!) Having been in the classrooms to volunteer, I am aghast at some of the “behaviors” that occur in todays world! There are some parents who need serious classes! I find myself putting on my angry mommy eyes and telling these kids just where it’s at.

    So, I do give a little something to the profs, just to remind them that some of the kids come from a good place. 🙂 That said, there’s no present opening session in the schedule!

    Merry Christmas, Jennie! You are a stitch! xoxo Heather

  8. I always give a very little something. They do so much and, since my MIL is a teacher, I know how very little they are paid. It truly takes a special person to be a teacher. They put up with an awful lot.

  9. The classic way to take up the class time on the last day before the winter break. No need for lesson plans or games for the day.

    I wonder what will be going on in the school systems when my kids actually start full days of school.

  10. I always buy a gift for my children’s teachers. Not that it’s easy to come up with something meaningful while on a budget. This year’s gifts…books in their honor to support an inner city church’s after school program. As well, as a homeroom Mom I take up a gift card collection for anyone interested. I think the teachers put up with a lot from our children. I don’t think I could do it!

  11. Salary indeed:) You make me smile!

    You and your charming sarcasm and honesty are so missed here, girl!
    Thanks for the PERFECTLY matching outfits christmas card. (I read your post and appreciated your hard work:) The kids are growing and they are sure charmers. It was great to hear from your family.

    I also read your piece on the Segullah about the chapel design and laughed so hard… If my Mister were awake he’d get a huge kick out of it too!
    Read my comment and pretend I edited the mistakes.
    I’ll send it to him tomorrow and they will all get a kick out of the comments at work… Who knows maybe they will change a thing or two, like Throw in a stained glass window somewhere.
    Hooray!!!!I am glad your house finally sold. We were concerned for you.

    I blog using my G Grandmothers name Beth. This blog really started out being one all of my sisters could blog to vent and have fun…somehow I now stand alone.
    Kate (not real name), is my sister who has lived with us for over a year with several of her daughters. Her oldest daughter married the young man at the bottom of your circle. Do you remember them?

    The people are the same, everyone wants their privacy…just with different names:)

    Your Christmas lights look awesome. I am so impressed! Your home here is lit up this Christmas Season and it looks so pretty.

    We Miss you!

    Merry Christmas Mrs W!
    Beth~♥♥♥

  12. I came upon your blog and was enjoying myself flipping through your posts until I read this one……….

    WOW
    as a former teacher and a current school principal it is no wonder the students that we teach come to us with a complete lack of respect for others. It seems to me that YOU are in need of some teaching here.

    Maybe you haven’t heard that it is better to GIVE then to receive? That we feel an inner warmth inside ourselves when we bestow a gift on another. How selfish would the teacher have been to deny the students that joy from the opportunity to watch her expression of happiness and appreciation upon opening the gifts that had been generously given to her by them. It is a lesson that apparently your child HAD to learn from a public teacher, since your reaction to it shows you don’t understand it well enough to teach it.

    One can only imagine you putting this into practice with your own family. Having your children open their gifts alone in the privacy of their rooms, instead of in front of the gift givers next to the tree. Or birthday parties where you gather up the LOOT, but then dismiss the gift givers to go on their merry way and that your child will open up the gifts later at bedtime!
    Also I’m dismayed when someone displays the ‘uninformed’ (and rather self important) attitude that their SMALL contribution of tax paying is somehow this teachers ENTIRE salary!(AND every other public employees salary) WOW, that must be SOME piece of property that you own where the taxes on it are $40,000 a year.

    Again, BOTH of these attitudes are ‘small’ and display ignorance and are in dire need of a skilled teacher to impart wisdom.

    As givers we WANT to see our gifts warmly received, and as a community we are GLAD that although we each may give only a small portion, that when POOLED together with everyone else, great public works, parks, and services can be provided to all.

  13. I loved this post – the last week of school was so busy for my family that we ran out of time to do our homemade gifts that we were going to do and we were too poor to just plunk down some giftcards. I told my sons (one in high school and the other in middle) how many students do you think your teachers have? My h.s. son’s teachers could have 150 or more students – I said if we stay up late tonight and get these done they’ll get buried by the other gifts – let’s give them “welcome back to school” treats for the first day after break – my boys agreed and the added stress gone!

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