How do you feel about families giving gifts to educators? (1 Viewer)

[athenaaa]

I have seen a really sad amount of videos lately of teachers/educators complaining about the gifts they were given by students/families. Those families/students took the time to get a gift (which they had zero obligation to).

I remember this summer I was an educator in a program and one of the children gave me a candle. Do I use candles? Not really, fure scares me. But was I so appreciative? Yes absolutely. This student took the time to think about me, I felt very appreciated.

This is not to say all educators/teachers are ungrateful, many appreciate the gifts so much. But please, before people post, they should really consider the impact of what they say. Students and their families put time and effort into showing that they care, the least that could be done in return is say thank you.​

 

[velvet]

My mum's a teacher and appreciates it.

Were the people complaining about the practice itself? Or the gifts? Cause I understand if they want to maintain a professional boundary in some cases.

 

[athenaaa]

My mum's a teacher and appreciates it.

Were the people complaining about the practice itself? Or the gifts? Cause I understand if they want to maintain a professional boundary in some cases.

It was specifically about the type of gifts. I could also understand it from a professional boundary standpoint, but that unfortunately wasn’t the case in this specific context. For example, there was one educator complaining about recieving chocolates and fuzzy socks. If that were me I would have been so appreciative because food is great and the socks are something practical anyone can use, and most importantly - the kid thought about them!

 

[velvet]

It was specifically about the type of gifts. I could also understand it from a professional boundary standpoint, but that unfortunately wasn’t the case in this specific context. For example, there was one educator complaining about recieving chocolates and fuzzy socks. If that were me I would have been so appreciative because food is great and the socks are something practical anyone can use, and most importantly - the kid thought about them!

Yeah if it's about the gift then I don't get the hassle.

 

[anyu]

i think teachers deserve gifts, but it's not mean if a kid doesn't give them one. i just hope those teachers didn't complain about the gifts in ways that the kids could see or find out about thats so rude to be unappreciative of kids being sweet

 

[dark_tranquility]

I've never thought about it
and I hated a lot of my teachers

 

[eclipsoul]

people who complain about gifts out of all things are the worst like if you're going to be ungrateful about something no one was obligated to give you, the least you could do is keep it to yourself especially when the gift comes from a literal child... gross

 

[Magician]

I appreciate it! We often get cookies and sweets from families on the last day before Christmas Holidays

But I remember that it wasn't allowed to gift teachers something at my old high school, because some parents used it to… pressure teachers to give their children benefits or better grades

 

[athenaaa]

I appreciate it! We often get cookies and sweets from families on the last day before Christmas Holidays

Aww that sounds so sweet

 

[centen]

I've noticed a lot of my friends with kids are VERY big on this. It wasn't really a thing growing up, that I recall? My parents never sent me to school with a teacher's gift anyway.

I'm not a teacher, so I'm guessing it's a nice enough idea, especially if the gift is something that can be used and isn't something that will just go in the trash or create an obligation. Like a single person only needs so many piles of cookies.

 

[VerrerAtHeart]

I remember that it wasn't allowed to gift teachers something at my old high school, because some parents used it to… pressure teachers to give their children benefits or better grades

Melissa from Dance Moms much?

In all reality as a future teacher I'm obviously fine with it as long as they don't expect me to give their kid special treatment because of it. I'm already going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel salarywise, so I don't think I can afford (ha) to pass any extra goodies up And if some parents decide to get me Lush soap or something (my best friend in high school would always get one of our science teachers Lush bars for some reason) all the better!

 

[Lexie]

I went to a private school, and they had strict rule on how much we could spend on teachers.

 

[Ahsoka]

I think it depends on the culture, but I only really see complaining as not questionable if the gift was really weird or disturbing