Education matters

It’s nearly the end of term, a time when teachers start packing up their classrooms and children start appearing with packages and cards for the teachers who have helped them through another year at school. 

This is, of course, a lovely gesture, particularly when the idea genuinely comes from the child themselves as an outpouring of real emotion toward their teacher, but sadly as is often the case in life even the simplest things such as this can be made unnecessarily complicated.

Back during prehistoric times when I started teaching, at the end of my first year I was quite overwhelmed to receive unexpected gifts from one of the children in my class. 

I received a handmade card, a can and small box of chocolates. I didn’t expect to receive any of them but I was delighted to accept them because they had so obviously been instigated by the child concerned. 

When I thanked her mum for the gifts she told me not to thank her because her daughter had thought the whole thing up for herself, making the card, saving up her money to buy the chocolates and asking her dad if she could give me one of his collection of beverages from the fridge. 

Now flash forward 25 years and giving teacher a gift at the end-of-the-year is almost a competition. The pressure of choosing the right gift can be overwhelming and is something that some parents begin to think about long before the year is over. In fact, it has even become big business with gift shops and online stores advertising: ‘Gifts for Teacher’ in April and May.

Some schools even have policies on gift-giving. This isn’t as strange as it might seem. There are many cases of parents trying to give expensive gifts to teachers in a bid to get special attention for their child the following year and then complaining when the teacher doesn’t, sometimes even asking for the gift back, demonstrating just one of the ways that a simple gesture can be overcomplicated!

Other schools, in a bid to remove this kind of parental manipulation, adopt a school charity and ask families who wish to give gifts to teachers to donate, but that misses the point as well. The whole point of a child giving a gift to their teacher is:

a) It demonstrates appreciation

b) It demonstrates affection

c) It teaches them the importance of showing appreciation of others.

This can’t be done with a nameless donation and is yet another way that a simple gesture can become overcomplicated.

So this year, if you are thinking about giving your child’s teacher a gift, stop and remember that this is a gift that should come from your child and your child alone and only if they want to, not because you do and everybody else is. 

Get them to think about their gift and even contribute toward it if they can. Rather than buying a card, get your child to make one because it is far more personal and when they are writing inside it, ask them to think of the qualities that inspired them to write the card in the first place. 

Finally, be absolutely certain that when your child gives the gift, they say ‘thank you’ as well. That way, your teacher can see that the sentiment is child-centred and comes from the heart … and those are the kinds of gifts that will stay with them for a very long time.