Another teacher gift thread

[lala]

Cause I'm on a long drive, too. (Though not as long as ag)

I was going to get dd's kindergarten teacher a gc & have her write a card. Then in one of his emails, he wrote something to the effect of, "I know this makes me a grinch, but please do not give me a gift. Your children are really my biggest blessing, so do something special with them. If you feel you must, I don't need another mug, please donate to your favorite charity instead."

Now, I like his sentiment, though it's technically bad form to mention gifts at all. I think it's funny that he mentioned the many mugs. Dd & I found a donation under the ELCA's Good Gifts (similar to heifer) that we are going to do.

So, what do you think? Tacky of him or not?

[amynumbers]

Dec 20, 2014 11:02:41 GMT -5 lala said:

Cause I'm on a long drive, too. (Though not as long as ag)

I was going to get ds's kindergarten teacher a gc & have her write a card. Then in one of his emails, he wrote something to the effect of, "I know this makes me a grinch, but please do not give me a gift. Your children are really my biggest blessing, so do something special with them. If you feel you must, I don't need another mug, please donate to your favorite charity instead."

Now, I like his sentiment, though it's technically bad form to mention gifts at all. I think it's funny that he mentioned the many mugs. Dd & I found a donation under the ELCA's Good Gifts (similar to heifer) that we are going to do.

So, what do you think? Tacky of him or not?

I get why people think it is tacky, but I think intent is most important in these situations. And his intent was obviously thoughtful.

Tacky or not, he has the experience to know people will get him gifts so I get it. It my be presumptuous, but it is also just common sense based on experience if that makes sense.

[Deleted]

Mmmm.... not sure? I probably would just respect his request and write him a thank you note?

And, if you are really in the spirit of giving gifts, give what you would have spent to a charity as he mentioned, but in his name, maybe?

[andrewsgal]

Not tacky I kind of like it. It allows people to still huge him a gift and bring him something.

[lala]

I agree, I love it. But he's an awesome teacher and I know his intentions are good. Seriously, he's the best teacher, so I'm happy to do what he wants.

[mamaalysson]

Not tacky. Take one look at Facebook, Pinterest, message boards, and you can see that gifts to teachers are all but expected and on everyone's mind. Why not address them in some way, and put a suggestion out there for what would be really useful. We did this as a school staff when I was teaching, asking all families to either choose a toy for the toy drive or donate to a charity (and we listed a few that were important to school staff members). Parents seemed to love it, and it made for such a wonderful, giving mood in the school the last week of classes.

[nowa]

I don't like the mention of the mug, but otherwise it's cool.