Giving gifts to your Kid's Teachers. Is this a common practice now?

[JohnnyHowDoO'duya]

1) my wife works as an EA .. working in a school is a terrible job and as parents we should be grateful the teachers get the summer off to recharge.
2) its no wonder teachers are wine drinking alcoholics. i walk into a school and i am ready for a drink, i couldnt imagine it being my lifes work.
3) I think its stupid to buy a gift for the teacher. ugh, its not creativem unique or unusual and reaks of wanting to keep up with the jonses. oooh, little suzy's mom brought Mrs AppleTits a giftcard, i better make sure my kid gives her a gift too or she may think less of me ...

but my wife buys Starbucks giftcards and has the kids write them a thank you note, whatever. i dont even give my wife a card for her birthday so maybe i am out of touch but it just reeks of conformity to me.

[JohnnyHowDoO'duya]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

You don't want to thank them for taking care of your kids for 9 months and teaching them how to be productive members of society?

sure, a thank you in person isnt enough?

and no, teachers arent teaching our kids how to be productive members of society, thats the parents job. they are teaching kids how to read, write and conform in a social setting. while learning how to be productive is a by product, i hate it when the school system trys to teach me how to be a parent.

like its any of their business to tell me they know best.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Yanda

This is a common misconception of uneducated parents with uneducated children. Teachers start holding meetings for the new school year in mid-august so really its only a bit over 5 weeks.

You also probably dont know that teachers work outside of school doing IPP's, Lesson Plans, Report Cards, in addition to marking tests and assignments.

They also need to spend there breaks doing supervision and come in early or stay late for meetings.

They get paid well because they were trained. Its a rough job and pointing at there salary and acting like a monkey makes you look ######ed because of the amount of work these people have to put in.

The sad thing is its probably your fault your child is doing poorly in school and you blame the teacher instead of yourself.

lol, they get more like 10 weeks off, not five. Eight weeks in the summer, one at Christmas and one at Easter. Plus their teaching day is really only about 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. with an hour for lunch. Staying late would mean an 8-hour day in many cases. Plus I think ovetime is expected in any professional job, so I don't think when teachers do put in extra time it's not anything that sets them apart from other educated people.

On top of their salary, they get one of the most incredible pensions our of any other profession in our country.

But I'm not hating on teachers. It's an awesome gig in every way. My wife and I are going to advise our kids to become teachers and I hope they do. It really provides for a great lifestyle. Would be amazing if everybody was able to enjoy as much free time as teachers get.

I do buy gifts for our kids' teachers, though. I think it's nice and they do a good job for sure.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Sliver

lol, they get more like 10 weeks off, not five. Eight weeks in the summer, one at Christmas and one at Easter. Plus their teaching day is really only about 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. with an hour for lunch. Staying late would mean an 8-hour day in many cases. Plus I think ovetime is expected in any professional job, so I don't think when teachers do put in extra time it's not anything that sets them apart from other educated people.

On top of their salary, they get one of the most incredible pensions our of any other profession in our country.

But I'm not hating on teachers. It's an awesome gig in every way. My wife and I are going to advise our kids to become teachers and I hope they do. It really provides for a great lifestyle. Would be amazing if everybody was able to enjoy as much free time as teachers get.

Holy sh**! Sliver and I are in agreement.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Rerun

A teacher with 5 years teaching experience makes $74,400 per year. They get paid well enough, especially considering all the time off they get.

I ain't buying them nothin.

That seems pretty reasonable for a person with professional degree. Engineers would be at a minimum of 100k by then.

What I would like to see would be the cash equivalent compensation they get once there pensions and extra vacation time is put in and compare that to the private sector. For example each extra week of vacation is worth about $1500. There pensions might make them very well paid.

I will say that the notion that teachers are paid poorly is definately false. But I don't think they are overpaid for what they do. The big thing that I think needs to be done is to get rid of that pay chart and make teaching competive. The best teachers should be paid the most instead of getting a set amount regardless of the work you put it.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Holy sh**! Sliver and I are in agreement.

Weird. So should we, like, go to a movie or something now?

[Lobotroth]

I gave Christmas gifts to my favorite teachers, the nasty ones got nothing.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Lobotroth

I gave Christmas gifts to my favorite teachers, the nasty ones got nothing.

In my day, at the end of the school year, the nasty ones got their outhouses pushed over... the good ones got a pass.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Lobotroth

I gave Christmas gifts to my favorite hot teachers, the nasty ones got nothing.

Fixed!

[ken0042]

Part of me based buying a gift on the fact that his teacher has made herself available after hours on more than one occasion. This includes meetings, email responses that come in aftyer hours, and updating the homework website every day.

I also recognize my kid isn't always the easiest person to deal with; and certainly added some stress to her job.

It also ended up being a good learning experience for my son. He now knows that random gifts are a way of being nice, and that "women like cards for some reason." He picked out the wine (with some vetoing from me), as well as the card. He also wanted to write the message in the card without me reading it.

I get paid pretty well for what I do, and it's nice when I get random things in my mailbox that show appreciation.

[aaronck]

Both my kids had great teachers this year, and both classes have a keener mom collecting and arranging the present. $30 in total, no work for me, seems like a no brainer.

[Kerplunk]

I don't recall ever buying or taking in a gift for a teacher at any grade level.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHowDoO'duya

sure, a thank you in person isnt enough?

and no, teachers arent teaching our kids how to be productive members of society, thats the parents job. they are teaching kids how to read, write and conform in a social setting. while learning how to be productive is a by product, i hate it when the school system trys to teach me how to be a parent.

like its any of their business to tell me they know best.

How can you be a productive member of society if you are uneducated? You don't need a college degree but you need to know how to read write and socialize with other humans. Sounds like teachers are doing just that.

Some parents need a push in the right direction on how to parent since most parents deflect any blame of anything a child does on the teacher and school instead of themselves. Not saying this is your case and you may have just had d bag teachers. Do you get mad at your boss telling you how to do your job? Probably not so why get mad at a teacher when they are asking you to do something that will help out their job and your child.

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Thanks. I don't recall the last time I received a gift for doing my job. Or getting 8 weeks vacation.

2 different things here.

I agree that you shouldn't get a gift just for doing your job. But going above and beyond your job to help a kid, would deserve some recognition. Obviously optional and my wife was not expecting anything from any of the kids. It's a nice to gesture and it encourages her to keep doing what she's doing.

8 weeks vacation or 10 weeks or whatever. Separate issue, can't hate on somebody for having those perks because we may not agree with the system. I've given gifts to people that makes lots of money or have great perks because I felt they really did care about my situation and helped me above and beyond their job definition.

[rd_aaron]

Originally Posted by GGG

I will say that the notion that teachers are paid poorly is definately false. But I don't think they are overpaid for what they do. The big thing that I think needs to be done is to get rid of that pay chart and make teaching competive. The best teachers should be paid the most instead of getting a set amount regardless of the work you put it.

I agree, but it's almost impossible to evaluate teachers properly. In a normal job, the boss can usually evaluate how quickly and efficiently a worker is doing their job. They can usually evaluate the end product as well. How do you evaluate the end product of a teacher?

Sure, the principal might have time to come watch a teacher teach a class for 10 minutes here and there, but that's also tough if you have 30-40 teachers in the school. You also can't evaluate a teacher based on how well their class does, even if it's a standardized test throughout the province.

My fiancee is a teacher and she has worked in a school in one of the richest neigborhoods in the city, and she's also worked at a school in the NE. Generally, there was far more support at home in the rich school than in the poorer school (a lot of parents worked shift work and weren't around as much). If the richer school graded out better, that doesn't necessarily give an indication of the quality of teacher. In fact, the teacher probably puts in more work in the poorer school as the kids are needier (for lack of a better term).

We've seen some teachers take advantage of the system, and both of us would agree that a competitive based system would be best, but it's just really hard to properly evaluate a teacher.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman
Thanks. I don't recall the last time I received a gift for doing my job. Or getting 8 weeks vacation.


I get a gift every birthday and annual anniversary for doing my job. Maybe you should find a better employer

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by Yanda

This is a common misconception of uneducated parents with uneducated children. Teachers start holding meetings for the new school year in mid-august so really its only a bit over 5 weeks.

You also probably dont know that teachers work outside of school doing IPP's, Lesson Plans, Report Cards, in addition to marking tests and assignments.

They also need to spend there breaks doing supervision and come in early or stay late for meetings.

They get paid well because they were trained. Its a rough job and pointing at there salary and acting like a monkey makes you look ######ed because of the amount of work these people have to put in.

The sad thing is its probably your fault your child is doing poorly in school and you blame the teacher instead of yourself.

This is a common misconception among ignorant teachers.

At no point did I point at their salary. At no point did I say they make too much money. All I said is that I wouldn't buy a teacher a present (other than the payment of my property taxes).

Further, every job I've ever worked had requirements outside my regular hours. My career also does (far in excess of teachers). I suppose it is unfortunate for me that I don't have summers off and don't get gifts for doing my job.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

I get a gift every birthday and annual anniversary for doing my job. Maybe you should find a better employer

Is it company propaganda like tshirts or pens or key chains? haha

I have enough SAIT crap to start a store.

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

All I said is that I wouldn't buy a teacher a present (other than the payment of my property taxes).

Wow, so every public employee you see.

"Hey, I got you a present!.... it's my property tax payment!"

[photon]

I've had customers give me gifts for doing the job they paid me for.

Maybe I exceeded their expectations and they wanted to do more than a thank you with the cheque?