The other day I was scrolling through Facebook and saw something that made the top of my head blow off.
It was a blog post entitled, Teacher Appreciation Week … Make It Staaaaahhhhhp!!
The author made it clear that she was not interested in dissenting opinions, so I kept quiet on her page. I like this woman. We have never met — as with many of my FB friends, we live in different states and have kids with Down syndrome in common. She is wise and funny and, to be honest, being friends with her on Facebook is like watching the Bravo channel in all the right ways. So I hope she doesn’t unfriend me after this.
But I’m willing to take the chance, because what she said really pissed me off.
I’m sure if this mom was here to defend herself she’d say she has nothing against teachers and everything against the tyrannical and annoying PTA systems that rule parents’ lives. I get that. Annabelle is almost 14 and I’ve never been to a PTA meeting, not once. Best decision I ever made. In fact, I kept my at-school involvement very limited from day one, keenly aware that I don’t typically play well with others.
I have always made an exception when it comes to Teacher Appreciation Week. It’s a simple concept that others like to complicate but the bottom line for me is that it’s a reminder to let our kids’ teachers — people who often spend more waking hours with our children than we do — know that we recognize their efforts. It’s also a chance to let our kids know that it’s important to say thank you.
And here let me say that while I’ve certainly been critical of some of my kids’ teachers and learning experiences over the years, there’s not a single teacher (well, okay, maybe one — and one principal) I am not eager to shower with gift cards and cookies. In many cases, a new car would not be enough. Charter, public, private, there’s so much debate and bad blood when it comes to education these days. But bottom line, what I see year after year is people willing to work insanely long hours for almost no pay to educate my not-always-easy-to-educate kids.
So no, I’m not going to pile on in a discussion about how shitty it is that the PTA is sending home Teacher Appreciation Week assignments. And if parents are competing to see who can be the nicest to the teacher, I say good — let the coffee mugs and apples and spa gift certificates pile up on desks in schools across the nation.
The gifts don’t have to be expensive; flour, sugar, salt, eggs and butter for star-shaped sugar cookies cost me almost nothing but a couple late nights. None of this has to take the place of other forms of parental involvement (except, for me, PTA membership) and there’s no need to make a big deal out of it. It should be a no-brainer.
This year I didn’t receive word from either of the girls’ schools that the week was approaching (and that could well be my fault — the flyers might be lost in piles of fund raising appeals from the charter school and IEP notices from the other one) and frankly, for once I wouldn’t have minded an assignment. I Googled “when does teacher appreciation week start” last week and started preparing. I have two dozen people to thank at Sophie’s school alone, and at that I’m sure I’ll miss some. She was so excited that she insisted on writing the tags herself; I hope someone at school can help Sophie decipher her own handwriting when it comes time to hand out her gifts.
Just one more task for the educators.