All I want for Easter is a well-behaved child and a handmade card

Anastasia De Waal, 30 March 2010

Dear Teacher,

I do hope you enjoy wearing the Tiffany bracelet our precious Emily gave you at Christmas – she thoroughly enjoys her literacy lessons and we’ve see such great improvements in her reading.

Now that we’ve reached the end of the spring term, please accept this limited edition Mulberry handbag as another token of our appreciation for all your hard work, and for the high marks we expect Emily to get in her Key Stage 1 Sats tests this summer.

With best wishes, Emily’s parents

p.s. Have you used the Royal Opera House vouchers yet?  Verdi’s Aida has had stunning reviews.

With the end of term comes a flurry of gift buying and giving (not to mention religious festivals and, worryingly, birthdays). Though many stick to the traditional recycled box of chocs or bottle of booze and a handmade card with a few kind, and often misspelt, words, it is becoming increasingly popular to splash out a little more.  From all-inclusive holidays to test match tickets, many unsuspecting parents are finding themselves trapped in the throes of an ugly popularity contest of sorts, the idea being if you lovingly furnish your child’s teacher with luxury items, your child is more likely to receive that extra bit of attention in class.

For generations this ethos has worked in the home—I only get out of bed at the weekend if promised a steaming hot cup of coffee and an almond croissant.  Children play computer games and eat toffees on the condition that they complete all their homework and brush their teeth at night.  Fortunately, the ‘bringing up children on bribes’ philosophy hasn’t translated quite so well into the classroom.  A recent survey carried out by the Association of  Teachers and Lecturers, ahead of their annual conference this week, suggests ‘increasingly commercialised and competitive’ gift-giving augments patterns of bad behaviour seen in the home, not to mention writing countless thank you notes adds to amount of paperwork.

This week, the Association of Teachers amd Lecturers (ATL) will put forward a motion to bring an end to this ‘give and take’ classroom culture by providing parenting classes for parents of unruly children (those who, presumably, only eat their greens if followed by a tub of ice cream) and threatening to cut child benefit payments if bad behaviour persists.  Though the latter is extreme and potentially confuses the boundaries that exists between home and school life, I hope that ATL’s survey and accompanying commentaries highlight that whilst bad parenting may work at home, it’s not going to be endorsed by those at school.

By Annaliese Briggs