Gen Y Speaks: What gifts do teachers treasure?

It has been two weeks since Teachers’ Day.  But I think the conversation on appreciating our teachers should be a year-long and not a once-a-while affair.

We have heard anecdotes about how certain teachers inspired their pupils, or how they reformed the lives of hooligans in their class. Even the Ministry of Education (MOE) hinged its recruitment ads on these touching stories.

I believe all of us have similar stories to share and appreciate the dedication and passion of our teachers. But what about teachers themselves?

After the Teachers’ Day celebrations were done and dusted, how do they feel about the appreciation shown by their students?

I asked three teachers about the gifts and tokens of appreciation they received, which they shared on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

For Mrs T, who has been teaching in a primary school for decades, what struck her the most happened 10 years ago, when an ex-student whipped up a meal and brought it to school for her.

“I was touched when he actually took leave from national service and cooked for me,” she told me. “And it was all laid out nicely on the canteen table, in a restaurant format no less!”

What a market spoiler, I quipped in response. The student went on to be a chef, Mrs T revealed.

My own secondary school teacher Ms K said the standard of gifts she received is “getting higher and higher, macam (as if in Malay) the students compete against each other.”

She noted how gifts she received have changed over the years, from teddy bears, flowers and mugs in the past to self-made brownies or self-knitted toys today.

In fact, another primary school teacher of mine, Mdm P, said the never-ending arms race between students has led to some schools disallowing students from buying gifts for teachers.

I cheekily asked the teachers the worst gift they ever got, or gifts they would rather not receive.

Mrs T and Mdm P were coy and declined to say. Said Mdm P: “I believe no matter how bad the gift is, at least the kid bothers.”

Ms K listed down items such as perfumes, thumb drives and accessories like necklaces as gifts she would prefer not to receive given that they could cost a fair bit.

Across all three teachers, there is a consensus that receiving cards for Teachers’ Day sparks the most joy.

Both Ms K and Mrs T keep the cards they have received and will re-read them once in a while, which gives them the motivation to continue teaching and remind themselves why they first became teachers years back. It is also easier to keep them as they occupy less space than other gifts, Ms K added.

A card with an acronym of her name was actually the most memorable gift Mdm P has ever received in her close to two decades of teaching because of how accurately the acronym described her as a teacher.

I believe that most of us, not just teachers, enjoy receiving a physical card on special occasions.

Personally, I have been making cards for my teachers since kindergarten. My mother taught me how when I was a kid.

I try to find time to make them, as busy as I may be, because this is the least I can do to show appreciation to my teachers. And I still find it more sincere than getting mass-produced cliché gifts like plastic flowers, which I believe teachers will dispose of since they are white elephants.

I am probably the rare few among my friends who still continue this gift-giving practice for my former teachers who taught me in primary and secondary schools and junior college.

I send them cards on Teachers’ Day and for a selected few whom I’m really close with, I do likewise during festive seasons such as Christmas and Chinese New Year.

I must say I do not do so for my university lecturers because I am not as close with them, given that I have less contact with them.

Like me, my friends used to make cards for their teachers too. As a class, we gave large cardboards to our teachers with our messages pasted on it, which was trendy back then.

But as we grew older, hardly anyone gives their teachers anything anymore. Visits to our alma mater, which used to be a yearly ritual, stopped too. Some probably drop WhatsApp messages to the teachers, but that’s about it.

In the end, whether it is giving cards, red pens or food, what matters is appreciation that “comes from the heart”, Mrs T said. She finds it heartwarming when ex-students, especially those who just went on to secondary school, bother to visit her during Teachers’ Day.

After all, as a lower primary teacher, she does not expect students to remember her after graduation, since they would have more vivid memories of their upper primary teachers.

Teachers’ Day may be over, but let us not confine our appreciation to an annual affair. There are simple things we can do, such as showing them the respect and honour they deserve as shapers of the country’s future, using an MOE tagline.

These will be the best gifts a teacher can ever have, beyond the best-made card or most expensive teddy bear given to them. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sean Lim Wei Xin is a fourth-year political science student at the National University of Singapore.