<p>This is our first year of having a child at boarding school. At our local school, room parents are sending out emails asking if parents want to contribute to class gifts for teachers.<br>
Is there a tradition of giving gifts to teachers at boarding school? If so, is it holiday or year end or both? We live 800 miles away and don't know other parents at school so I'm not sure who to ask!</p>
<p>My kid is a sophomore, and last year we only gave gifts to her dorm parent and adviser. This year, I sent her back from Thanksgiving break with bottles of maple syrup and jars of honey(for her teachers) , which are produced on our farm so I guess they are considered small “homemade” gifts. I do think that gifts to the dorm parent and adviser are more common than teacher gifts… but others may have a different perspective…</p>
<p>Boarding School Teacher/ Dorm Parent here. In the course of my career (15 years) Gifts have gone from being plentiful and overwhelming to almost nonexistent. Other teacher friends have remarked on this as well. Most of my advisees do not get me anything, nor do my students (I’m relatively well-liked and get very high marks on my student evals, so I don’t think it’s a message…) I’ve gotten gifts from students I don’t know well and nothing from families where I’ve sat with their child for 8 hours in the emergency room in the middle of the night and was never bothered.There’s no right or wrong way to do it. I don’t expect parents, students, or families to give me holiday gifts–at our school, there’s no particular culture or custom beyond what each individual family feels comfortable with. </p>
<p>My favorite gift ever was a kid who wrote all her teachers a card saying that the family decided, rather than burdening us with more pen sets, novelty ties and scarves, to pool the money budgeted for teacher gifts and buy gifts for a child in need through the Angel Tree in our honor. There was a card about how we had inspired her to always take care of the least provided for first–it was nice.</p>
<p>Some like to wait until the end of the year, some pick Winter Holiday, some do both, most neither. Teachers will love and work hard for your kids no matter what. Do what is comfortable for you!</p>
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<p>slow night, @Albion? Good to see you once again giving the parents an insider’s view! and happy holidays</p>
<p>Over the years we have only given to the housemaster. They live with our children and in our case for 2 years the housemaster was also D’s advisor. We all knew him and his family well. We simply gave him a gift card at the end of each year to a very nice restaurant that was enough to cover a dinner out for his family. He would always text me a picture of them all enjoying the restaurant over the summer. </p>
<p>Ha ha, yes, @Charger78. I think most of my posting comes along when there’s a lull at the duty desk, or when I’m procrastinating on grading tests! (Of course, I’m 4 years into my boarding school career, and STILL only a “junior member” of CC, which says it all about how busy boarding school faculty are.</p>
<p>Before break I’m giving my teachers handwritten notes on 4x6 photos I took. Hey, some teachers might get more than others. ;)</p>
<p>As a rule I try to only give edible things that are easily re-gifted to teachers. My Dad was a teacher and got lots of things that he didn’t want to throw away but really, were just more clutter. A nice note and some cookies (if you are shipping them, Pringles cans are amazing for shipping cookies, put the can in a box stuffed with newspapers, almost none will break) should be more than enough. </p>
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