My D writes and sends a letter to each of her new students in the summer before they begin kindergarten telling them about herself and all the fun things they will be learning in school!
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Not sure where we are going with all this comment re: teacher gifts/ gift cards.
Are we suggesting they don’t need/appreciate them? I don’t think that can be a blanket statement!
Do a survey of large urban title XX schools and too many gift cards probably not an issue they are dealing with. S taught for a short time in Pilsen, a Chicago Public School Hispanic district. The best gift he got was a plate of tamales made fresh that morning and a “thank you” in Spanish from the mom who made them.
And back to the thread…. I really hated spending money on school fundraiser crap because I refused to ask anyone else to spend their money on it! But you know, “make your quota”
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Hated the school fundraisers that were run by outside companies. They hype the kids up on the prizes they can win if they sell enough overpriced gift wrap, popcorn, etc. Some parents took the sales sheet to their office to push the product and their kids would be the top sellers. Quelle surprise! It was a hard stop for us. I was class mom, on the PTA board – I get the school needs money, but this method always rubbed me the wrong way.
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One more teacher gift story. When I was in school, my teacher was leaving to go on maternity leave. Many of the students brought in gifts (this was in Brooklyn in the 70s.) One kid tried to give the teacher cash, she said she was not allowed to accept it - she could get fired. He went out and used the cash and came back with boxes of diapers instead. It has stuck in my head all these years later.
I don’t think anybody here doesn’t want to be generous in their support of teachers and the PTO. We just resent being forced to give a particular amount of money to be spent according to another person’s ideas. The same as happens in offices with group gifts (which is where this discussion started).
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I still have gift wrap that I bought when my younger son was in elementary school. He’s 34 years old now. 
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“I really hate spending money” [STRIKE: “on…”]
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Things I can do for myself and have the time and knowledge to do so.
Things that I can do for myself and that I have the knowledge but not the time to do so.
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