Kids break up today, what is it with all the presents for teachers?
 

It seems to be a lot of one-upmanship with some parents, presents galore and in some cases more than one pressie. Is this a new thing? it seems someone only has to take a dump these days and out pours the emotions and presents.

My two sat down last night and made their own 'thank you' cards, we (parents) also popped in a thank you note as well. One of the parents also created a book with ap picture of all the children (we all contributed) in it.

Am i missing the point here - being that i am a grumpy old b@stard?

No you're not. Our's did the same, thank you cards and a pen pot for each teacher decorated by my two daughters.

What size note did you 'pop in' ?

A5 not £5:)

Paul,

try being a teacher :)

how would you feel with 30 kids in your house every day ;)


Mart

Glad that I'm being paid a reasonable wage for it; finish at half 3 to 4; and am just about to get 6 weeks holiday?

They chose their profession! It would be like nurses being annoyed they have patients to look after!? Or BA cabin crew having to actually take the odd flight now and again.
When I was a kid no one got the teacher a present!
Is this a new Americanisim we've adopted?

Oh no, not another thing we've forgotten to do.

So thats the reading book, violin, afterschool club payment, dinner money payment and now you tell me we should have given this year's teacher a pressie.

:( Social Services will be on our case toot sweet :D





That reminds me of the scene in Christmas Vacation where the employees are trying to impress the boss with lavish gifts.

I think it's a bit OTT, but my mother was a teacher for almost 30 years. Seeing all the hard work and extra hours that she put in made it easy for me to see why a little thank you gift was nice.

Now don't get me wrong, she and every other teacher gets paid to do thier job, but being a good teacher requires having a good connection and relationship with the child and parents.
Sometimes parents like to say thank you for being that person who has actually helped their child to learn something.
I never thought there was ever a competition over the gift. It was usually just a token.

The same at my sons school, a few boxes of roses flying about.

I think it's a bit OTT, but my mother was a teacher for almost 30 years. Seeing all the hard work and extra hours that she put in made it easy for me to see why a little thank you gift was nice.

Now don't get me wrong, she and every other teacher gets paid to do thier job, but being a good teacher requires having a good connection and relationship with the child and parents.
Sometimes parents like to say thank you for being that person who has actually helped their child to learn something.
I never thought there was ever a competition over the gift. It was usually just a token.

The same at my sons school, a few boxes of roses flying about.

When I was at grammar school, it was tradition to buy your form teacher a little something at Christmas.

In the 4th year, (now year 10), we had a little guy who treated the lads like sh1t and fawned over all the girls. That year, we told the girls we had an idea for his Christmas present and they should go their own way.

When he opened their present, it was a nice desk set.

When he opened ours, it was the blackboard pointer he used to hit us with, that went missing 6 weeks prior, and was, by now, in four pieces. Not a happy bunny, he wasn't:D

My 5 year old has given his teacher a 'best teacher' coffee mug and the class assistant a small box of chocs and a card each to say thank you for looking after him and helping him when he needed it during the year. No big pressies or one upmanship with the others although i'm sure there will be among some of the mothers down there.

For the cost of a couple of quid he gets the enjoyment of giving them a present to say thank you and the teacher/assistant feel appreciated. They were absolutely inundated with cards when I took him in this morning and the kids were all excited running around saying thank you.

No harm in that.

Come on, everyone, Teachers are struggling on £42,000 a year and with 26 hours a week directed work to do .... then 6 months off.

They need all they can get, they are suffering .....

It is an Americanism and gets out of hand in all honesty - but, it's still 'a nice thing to do'

You really are an ar$e, aren't you?

My wife is a teacher and works 7 days a week (planning and marking at the weekends). She gets to work at 7.30ish and gets home around 6.

Every 'holiday' she goes in to work to refurbish and rearrange her classroom. I'd say she gets 6 weeks off a year in total.

She doesn't complain about it as it is what she wants to do, but idiotic comments like your's don't help.:razz:

Do you have children? If you don't that explains why you don't understand.

However, when you trust someone to care for and teach your child for the best part of 12 months, you tend to feel a little bit more for them. At least a teeny bit more than you would the flight attendant who's bringing you your 'food' (if you can call it that?) on the way to Magaluf.

I'm sure some parents simply see it as somewhere to ship their child off to when of compulsory school age. They probaby feel as enthusiastic about the education they do/do not get.

Equally some (not many as being proven here) feel that is a little bit more important than just free childcare.

Nowt wrong with giving a teacher a prezzie. It teaches the kids to be thankful to those that help them, quite a few of the just out of school ****s I work with could learn a valuable lesson like this.

Thinking back of it when i was in high school there was a few teachers i would have liked to given a proper token of my appreciation by emptying my sack in 'em.:norty:

I agree that going over the top is more likely to be parents trying to impress everyone else rather than an altruistic motive.

I think what you and your children was adequate, it gave the children the chance to express their appreciation to the teacher and also your thanks to go with it. A good bit of teaching from you for your children as well as your chance to let the teacher know how you feel too.

Les

Can't say I felt the same.

The teachers at my secondary school seemed really old. All the men were just, well..... awful!

There was a pe student teacher once. He was nice. Oh and my drums instructor. ;)

I had loads of hot-ass teachers, it was great. We even had a pair of straight out of university babetastic twins!....one turned out to be a dyke though.:(

Are you trying to say that cause my parents never gave me a present to give to my teacher they didn't love me and want me to do well at school?

I have a 9 month old at nursery :thumb:

Surely the fact one was lesbian only made it better?

+1!:)

not really, she went full blown dyke, short hair etc. Complete turn around from when she first started.

Some strange views on teachers and their efforts that go towards educating children in the Uk.
Some of you on here have obviously watch the advert of you can earn up to £42k a year(if you are a maths teacher in London maybe)
My wife is a teacher in a decent school and works very hard doing a little more than a 26 hour week, starting before 8am most days and getting home after 5pm most nights so more than a standard 39hr full time role I am guessing.
Then take into consideration the no lunch breaks 4 days of the week as the schedule is done by the Deputy head who believes that they shouldn't really have time to get a break and that she gives up a couple of hours at the end of the day for clubs and to help the students then 39hours would be surpassed.
Maybe if you work in a ****e school in which they don't achieve 98% pass rate A-C then you don't really deserve a present lol.
Quite interested as to why the teacher bashing continues on this site?
Is it because people have a perception of well payed jobs with good benefits a bad thing when they are not earning as much or only have 4-5 weeks payed holiday a year?
Or the perception of them working a short week?
It will vary from school to school but I know people who have higher paid jobs and rarely work a full week as when on site they get the minimum work achieved and get off early.

Some strange views on teachers and their efforts that go towards educating children in the Uk.
Some of you on here have obviously watch the advert of you can earn up to £42k a year(if you are a maths teacher in London maybe)
My wife is a teacher in a decent school and works very hard doing a little more than a 26 hour week, starting before 8am most days and getting home after 5pm most nights so more than a standard 39hr full time role I am guessing.
Then take into consideration the no lunch breaks 4 days of the week as the schedule is done by the Deputy head who believes that they shouldn't really have time to get a break and that she gives up a couple of hours at the end of the day for clubs and to help the students then 39hours would be surpassed.
Maybe if you work in a ****e school in which they don't achieve 98% pass rate A-C then you don't really deserve a present lol.
Quite interested as to why the teacher bashing continues on this site?
Is it because people have a perception of well payed jobs with good benefits a bad thing when they are not earning as much or only have 4-5 weeks payed holiday a year?
Or the perception of them working a short week?
It will vary from school to school but I know people who have higher paid jobs and rarely work a full week as when on site they get the minimum work achieved and get off early.

I think I'd commit suicide :(

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I am not teacher bashing. However, i imagine your wife is paid for the school holidays which it would seem are 12 weeks each year, most 'non teachers' get around 4-5 weeks paid holiday. when i went to school 12-5 =7 (weeks)
Not to bad on the face of it really:)

My school has great teachers and is well led. I do feel that a hand made card from our kids means a lot more than the parents spending 10 minutes in Tescos picking out a card and gifts for them to wrap and then hand to teacher.

Don't forget that in that 'holiday time' they are planning, marking, researching and assessing etc. As well as all the general maintenance to do
in the classroom such as stripping display boards, stock taking, balancing the milk money, getting an ear bashing for chasing up milk money.

This time of year is seen as just a holiday for teachers. In reality the planning that needs to be done for the next 6/12 months needs to be done, and if the teacher is at least half decent, that will take a few weeks.

Also keep in mind that all 12 weeks holiday isn't as super as it seems, with
the choice of being a teacher comes certain sacrafices. One is that you are tied to taking holidays in peak season.
So while most families might choose to take an early June, or late September break, but teaching doesn't allow that.

It is sacrifices you dropped a mark for that!:)

Only 7 weeks to fit all that into, must be tough;)
every job i have had, i have had to do unpaid overtime to complete the work, might be only 5 hours a week but it still adds up also working from home to hit deadlines.:)

No they don't have to fit all that into 7 weeks.

They have a life too. Well some of them.