by Michelle Tejada, staff reporter
Many people believe that it’s not a bad thing to give a teacher, boss, principal or anyone who controls a students grades or a person’s paycheck, a gift. Many people also disagree and think that it should be their own choice. Students have limits when it comes to giving teachers gifts.
Mayor Bill De Blasio made a $5 limit to any NYC public worker, including teachers. Without these limitations, one is given the impression that students aren’t getting the grades deserved, but the grades bribed.
This is something that happens all the time, not necessarily in this school, but in many other schools, students tend to buy their grades. Teachers are showered with gifts by their students as soon as the holiday season comes around. With the goal to become the teachers favorite. This is unfair to many teachers in said school. All teachers deserve the same amount of respect.
Teachers may have formed a bond with their students, but if the intentions aren’t honest and pure,it is unacceptable for the teacher to accept the gift. No one knows if a student is doing it out of compassion or has another agenda, but it’s better to just not allow it, to avoid problems.
“I don’t think that’s fair because of favorites. It wouldn’t be fair for the other kids,” eighth grader Deborah Lassends said.
Teachers do so much for their students far beyond what they get paid to do. The right way to go about this is to give the teacher a gift on the last day of school. This way the student can still show their appreciation for the teachers, but in a more professional manner, that doesn’t give the wrong idea.
“It’s probably not a good idea because it can be misconstrued and some people may even give gifts to get favor or better treatment. but that’s why we have many rules against giving gifts to anyone in a responsible position. Very often usually the easiest rule is to just limit from giving gifts. And in the city as far as I understand the limit is $5 maximum on gifts which was chosen specifically to minimize any of that kind of favoritism,” chemistry teacher Dr. Baribault.
Some students believe that it is okay, and that it shouldn’t matter. That students should be allowed to give a teacher a gift, to show appreciation. Teachers deserve to be shown appreciation, because they work really hard to teach their students.They spend a lot of time making sure their students are ready for their future. So, of course some students would want to give a teacher a gift.
“I think thats pointless because if a student wants to give their teacher a present they should be able to do that because they appreciate a teacher. It doesn’t mean that somebody appreciates somebody else more than the other students but maybe they want to make an extra effort to show their appreciation,” sophomore Kayla Morell said.
