I'll bet David Lee Roth as a youngster always gave his teachers excellent gifts.
Another main reason in this decision is the New Yorker article a few weeks back about giving gifts to teachers. It was an interesting article about how the practice can be abused, how some parents buy really nice gifts, and some parents buy some chintzy shit. It also talked about how in some cultures, it is very important to give a nice gift to the teacher. Sujan can back me up on that one.
Now the public schools have also decided to make the announcement that no parent should spend more than five dollars on a gift for a teacher. Is the New Yorker piece the reason for this decision as well? If so, it is incredible to me how an article that wasn't even overly critical of gift giving is being used to ban all gift giving. It could have as easily been used to urge parents not to buy shitty gifts.
I did not get into teaching for gifts. I obviously did not get into teaching for the money. It annoys me when teachers bitch and moan about how low paid they are. Our society could give two shits. Teachers are expected to at least get their master's degrees so they can be paid like crap. However, I knew what I was getting into when I decided to go into teaching. Would I like to be paid more? Of course, but we need to fight for that rather than sit around and kvetch about how low paid we are. It always seems to me that the teachers always complaining about money are the ones who really don't want to be teaching anyway. My school does not have a union. I have no idea how to start one, but it might be interesting to look into.
The bottom line though is nicely summed up by a teacher from a public school up the block from mine quoted in this article.
"Teachers should be paid enough so that parents don't feel they need to give gifts to teachers and teachers don't feel they need to accept them."
Shame on you teacher for wanting a livable wage!
.JPG)
15 comments:
This teacher gift thing is bah humbug!!! We have been teaching for a very long time and by now we would have enough mugs to start our own mug store had we kept them all! HOWEVER, the point here is not some article, or the schools, or the teachers. The point is the season and the children. The kids come in so proud and happy to share their gift and it really doesn't matter to the teacher if it is crayoned picture or a mug filled with candy. What does matter is the joy of the children, the meaning of the season, and the chance for kids to learn to give and share. Once again, adults screw up the most simple of life's pleasures!
dor,
i misspoke. we are allowed to get cookies or banana bread or something like that. homemade cards are amazing. but the gifts aren't the issue to me, at least at my school. it is the asshole interim head not being honest with us and jerking us around.
Surely one of things we have learned from the last election is that merit should come second to wealth? "No Child Left Behind" should have a fast track option for those who can exchange an i-pod for grade consideration. Isn't that the American way?
I liked the idea in that New Yorker article of their being a pool that parents could chip into to thank all the teachers without fear of favor or bias. Failing that, maybe its time to look at those positions in LA.
Besides, according to Random Doubts of Walter Mondale you should be made an exception to the no gifts, no gratuities rule as you need urgent medical attention for your posterior. It's a sign of age that we all have to deal with, my boy. At least (fingers crossed, praise God) its not the dreaded and inevitable 'roids. Alex is deathly afraid of the roids.
nine months work for twelve months pay....hmmmmm, interesting.
(jennifer always hits me when I say that)
alright, smart guy. it is 9 months work for 9 months pay that is spread out over 12 months.
Yes, it is nine months pay spread out over twelve months! Damn, that irritates me when people say that it is twelve months pay for nine months worth of work! Let's not forget the hours at home grading papers, preparing tests, etc., the parent teacher conferences that begin at 7 am and go till 7 pm for more than one day, the after school activities, the back to school nights, and on and on and on. Give me a break! What other business doesn't pay overtime? And if it doesn't, then rewards its employees with other things. Hell, we can't even retire because the cost of health care that the county will not pay any part of is $800. per month!!! 401 K's - forget about it!!!! Yeh, we get summers off and homemade bread - deal with it people or vote higher pay for public servants. And, by the way, we are not servants!
Sorry, I forgot! Summers off? Well, let's try painting houses, doing lawn care, teaching summer school, or having a spouse that helps out with those things OR keeps working through the summer. Yes, indeedy, teachers have it soooooo easy!
dor--I'm just joshing. my wife used to be a nyc pub. school teacher, so I'm well aware of the late nights and the resulting low effective hourly wage.
dn
Do we really get summers off? Some teachers are called midsummer to attend conferences on math, handwriting etc. and the last week of august teachers start to worry about their new year and planning activities for the beginning of school.
Last night I unwrapped a homemade gift from S.A. in B***** class and almost cried. This is a child who has a really special place in my heart and her homemade, weaved potholder was beautiful. I can only imagine how much time it took for SA to sit and make the potholder. A child who has trouble sitting still and quiet for more than 5 minutes at a time and a child who needs to be reminded to focus She sat down and weaved me a potholder! That is gift giving! Honestly that brings more joy to a teacher than cash.
Of course, the image of motar boarded angels suffering through an underrecompensed career might carry a leeeeetle more weight if you and Alex weren't teaching at a private school.
And before all you educators gang up on me and start screaming like a bunch of underpaid saints remember that I probably make less over here in the non-profit field, and am no more and no less virtuous.
We can afford good books and music, We can afford computers and the time to compose our thoughts in a blog. We may not be able to afford a Mercedes, but still... We choose to work in the service of the public (and indeed, not as servants). We live comfortable (if frugal) culturally rich middle class lives. DOnald Trump is an ass and he has more money than us- boo hoo.
Yes teachers (and others who chose not to chase the money dragon out of college) make less than they deserve. Pro-athletes are overpaid, and so on. We all know and accept that. This subject is never going to go away, so getting all defensive and self righteous about will only lead to heart attacks and is unlikely to change anything, eh?
What I was trying to say above is that the mark of a person's character is not how much you make; is not how much you spend; it is how much you give (be it donation in lieu of getting a higher salary, straight cash, or time).
Therefore, we are all fairly virtuous people, despite the chronic self obsession.
weasel, i agree with you. i know that if i want to teach, i'll get paid shit. i think part of the problem at my school is that we are being told that parents can't afford gifts because they don't have money when they can afford 20,000 dollars per kid to send their kids to the damn school. the head of school is a jackass and is lying to us about his real intentions. that is the real issue.
I sort of agree.. from the ages of 11-17 I went to a non-private (indeed vaguely socialistic) boarding school set up for the sons of farmers (Alex went too, but as a day pupil) because my dad was in the Air Force and I needed a stable education. The Air Force paid a huge chunk of my tuition but my parents still struggled to ensure that I would be able to stay at one (rather academically rigourous and splendid) school rather than switch every two years.
I'll admit that was personal experience, and the majority of private school parents aren't short on the qwan. But my point is, ultimately neither are we when you think about it. We aren't starving, we have nice things, and we are fairly smart so other opportunities are out there for us should we chose one day to be lawyers or execs. Better that we ask them to make a donation to our favorite cause rather than feel piqued that we didn't get a gift certificate to the Gap so we can pick out slave labor clothing. Class envy is a poor excuse for real revolution.
I reckon its time you and all your readers moved the hell away from the city and up to Maine: you can pitch tents in my backyard, enjoy cheap beer, and meet your neighbors at the Farm Store....
Although that doesn;t stop your interim head from being a complete management consultant infected douchebag.
What a patronizing dick.
Bring him to Maine too, and we'll get him disoriented in the woods... soo-eee...
weasel,
personally i'm more of a barnes and noble kind of gift certificate recipient kind of guy and they're a blue company to boot, right?
and i really wouldn't have minded this whole thing if the head wasn't such a dick and had been honest with us.
Post a Comment