Teacher here. When a child gives me a drawing with a scene of something we've done in class, it always brings a smile. Especially with a sentence or two explaining what they enjoyed doing. These drawings take alot of effort, and I appreciate them. Often in the scramble at the end of the year, I find it's difficult to find time to have my own children include a handwritten note to go with the gifts to their teachers. Thanks to the parents who manage to pull that off.

(Elementary/lower school level to be sure. By middle school those little drawings go into new territories....

Anonymous wrote:For the people who do give gifts, what do you give? What would be an appropriate gift? Thanks.

for the females, wifey bought a bunch of cute bags off of QVC, and for the guys, they got SBucks cards.

Do you allow your kids to give birthday gifts to friends simply becasue they were lucky enough to be born? Do you give holiday gifts? That's simply a date on the calendar and no one earned those either.

I give end of year teacher gifts because I want to - because I appreciate the work the teachers do beyond "just" their jobs. They support my children instead of coming in, teaching a general lesson to the whole class and going home.

My kids spend at least 7 hours a day with their teachers. If I spend every other of their awake hours with them (which I don't becasue they have other activities), I see them for 6 hours, my husband sees them for maybe 2 hrs.

Exactly same as PP, except we had a class gift collection for all the teachers (specials too, divided by time spent with our kids). I gave under $100 because that's all I could do, but I wrote notes to teachers. The class gift is from everyone no matter if people give or not.

I wrote sincere thank you notes to my kids' teachers. Our family is struggling financially due to the recession and can't afford to buy them gifts. We're just relieved that we covered the tuition and the other costs of attending the school. I hope they have enough maturity and character to value the note despite the lack of a gift.

I'm a teacher, and I think families should strongly consider a gift at the end of the year for any decent teacher. Just think what you tip the maids and gardeners. Some teacher spent 1000 hours with your kid and you can't even scrounge up a nice card from family and DC with a $25 Target card? Come on now...

Now, for a teacher who goes way beyond the call of duty, to not give a gift or even a card is such a slap in the face. Take five minutes and write down what you appreciated from said teacher. It takes almost no effort on your part, and means so much to the teacher. If you would rather email, be sure to copy the principal.

I'm a teacher. Not only am I highly skilled and extremely effective at the instructional part of teaching, but I also make it a point for each student to feel valued, respected, talented, etc. This school year, fully 40% of my students' parents have taken the time to email me and the head of school to applaud my efforts (and results). I love my job anyway, but knowing that parents notice what is going on in the classroom and care about what I am doing means the world to me.

At my current independent school, parents give me effusive praise. I've been called a life-changing teacher more than a few times. At my last public school, I never - not once - got a thank you from even one parent. Ever. And, well, I'm not there anymore, obviously. Teachers who feel like someone notices their hard work are far more likely to continue working hard!

Anonymous wrote:Its a known fact teacher quality is one of the most important determinants in the quality of you childs education. More so than class size or dollars spent per child for instance. If your private school has lower teacher compensation on average i really dont see how your school is attracting the best teachers. There may be exceptions here or there but on average teacher quality will be inferior to a school that pays more. Please before enrolling your dc in a private school ask where teacher comp is relative to the average. If its not top quartile i would say chose another school or go to publc school.

Have you ever spoken to private school teachers? Many of them actually choose to teach in private schools because they believe in the school's mission, curriculum or autonomy (among other factors).

Following your logic, a teacher in public schools who is 35 years out of school and the highest paid with step increases would necessarily be the best teacher. I'm not saying that this person couldn't be a great teacher, but it could be a teacher just counting the days until retirement. The highest salary does not mean the highest quality. It may come as a surprise to you, but there are teachers who are motivated by other things. I'm sure they wouldn't teach for free, but most teachers I know didn't go into teaching because of the huge salaries offered.

PP, do you actually have children in school?

Anonymous wrote:OP. It seems to me you are all victims of peer pressure or are trying to curry favor with the teacher. When was the last time you gave a gift to your local policeman or police precint for protecting you or fire dept for keeping you safe or town mayor. I would venture the answer is never.

To the poster who thinks the private school teachers are paid less than public school counterparts i would tell you switch schools because you are paying a private school tuition for a worse education for your child than sending your child to public school.

Actually, our kids and I have brought baked gifts to both our area fire fighters and our local ER (after an ER visit) within the past year. It' a pretty normal thing to do. And our kids thank the mayor and city council members whenever they see them. We live in Alexandria, so we see our mayor and council members out and about pretty often. It's not at all unusual for people to thank and give token gifts to people who help the community.