But I Hate Teacher Appreciation Week.
Depending where you are, either this week or next is Teacher Appreciation Week. The fact that it is a week at all is evidence that the whole thing is out of hand, inasmuch as the National Education Association only recognizes a National Teacher Day.
If you have a child in a school that celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week, you have most likely been approached — or at the very least received a note — reminding you of the event and asking you to help out at a teacher luncheon or maybe contributing for a group gift. Perhaps your local parent/teacher group is really out of hand and has organized events and suggested gifts for each day of the week. By way of contrast, look at the suggestions from the actual national PTA and the California PTA. Notice the emphasis on small tokens of esteem and community building expressions of gratitude. Oh, and better yet, notice that the folks in California encourage periodic (and inexpensive) appreciation of teachers throughout the year.
Someone needs to take the handful of busybody parents who are turning this into a big magilla aside and explain a few things to them. Teacher Appreciation is about saying thanks, nothing more. Parents do not have the time and money to pick a thoughtful gift or five for each of their kids’ homeroom teachers. And let’s not forget that in a modern school there are specialists to consider! Even if you only spend $5 on each of them, it adds up in a hurry. It is hardly fair to leave out each child’s Spanish, Drama, Music, PE, Art, Science and Math teacher. While you are at it, don’t forget the staffers who make it possible for everyone to get work done: the Principal, teaching assistants, reading specialists, school librarian, and probably a half dozen other people. Do we appreciate them any less because they don’t have a homeroom? Should we?
Nor, frankly, do teachers want to be buried under a mountain of gifts no matter how thoughtful from each of the hundred kids who they teach in any given week. They can only use so many “World’s Best Teacher” mugs, there’s only room for so many bouquets on their desks, they don’t a mountain of muffins for breakfast, they can really only keep track of a dozen or so Border’s Gift Cards without splitting their wallets.
And worst of all, kids get caught in the middle, ferrying notes and gifts. There is inevitably somebody who has brought something cooler and somebody who has brought nothing. And who exactly is teaching the kids during that teacher appreciation luncheon on Friday? Nobody.
This is a holiday not even Hallmark could love. Yeah, they’re skipping this one in favor of Mother’s Day.
In closing: You won’t be needing those Fourth and Fifth Amendments, will you? Good, good. Thoughts from Blumenthal on the Administration. What has Al Gore been up to lately? Some funny pictures. An article about why there never seem to be any pens in the supply closet. And last but certainly not least, Willie Nelson on the growing farm crisis: why good farms, healthy food, healthy environment, and healthy local economies go together.
