Teacher Gifts Run the Gamut -- But No More Mugs, Please

Especially at a small school, teachers and parents notice what you do. "You want a good reputation," Gallart said.

Teacher-gift ethics seem to be largely situational in the D.C. area. When a Howard County couple last year gave 20 Clarksville Elementary School teachers and other school staff a week at the family's Maine wilderness camp, the school board's ethics panel was asked to rule on it. The couple pointed out that their youngest child had just graduated from fifth grade, so no one in their family stood to benefit from the $10,000 gesture. (The panel ultimately allowed the camp vacation gift.)

Likewise, the Jackson Hole vacation rental seemed reasonable, said one of the teachers who accepted it a few years ago. Fran Turner, of Churchill Road Elementary School in McLean, said that if the teachers hadn't gone, the vacation home would have sat unused for two weeks.

Turner said she appreciates the many wonderful presents bestowed on her by grateful parents: gift certificates to Borders, Starbucks, Elizabeth Arden, the Palm. Churchill parents often pool their funds as a class to do something special for teachers on their birthday or at the holidays and to give them breakfast during Teacher Appreciation Week.

But Turner, echoing many of her fellow teachers, said that

she is always a bit awed by the bounty and that she hopes parents know she has no expectations to get "stuff" and loves heartfelt thank-you cards just as much.

"Those notes can make a hard year into a bearable year," said River Hill High School math teacher Kevin Dorsey, who saves them in a desk drawer. "Whenever I get down, I'll take them out and read them."

As a teacher and as a coach, Dorsey occasionally receives big gifts that he knows are well-intentioned but still give him an ethical twinge: The $100 restaurant gift certificate, for instance, that he got from the family of a girl he tutored and for whom he wrote a job recommendation letter.

Still, those letters "take a lot of time and effort and they're not part of the job," he said. When they elicit a $20 Borders gift-card thank-you, he said, he sees nothing wrong with that.

Public school teachers work hard and deserve recognition, said Malin Kerwin, who has three children at Janney Elementary School in Northwest Washington. Teachers often get bookstore gift certificates given from the entire class and purchased with $5 to $10 contributions from each student. Kerwin says that way, students can give what they feel is appropriate. "We don't want anyone to feel pressure, like the Smiths have to keep up with the Joneses," Kerwin said.

One thing teachers all seem to agree on is mugs. "No more!" they plead.

"And soap, bath stuff and candles and anything with apples and 'Greatest Teacher,' " said Tina DeAnna, a second-grade teacher at Watkins Elementary School in Southeast Washington.

DeAnna said less-affluent schools such as hers are happy to get help with basic supplies. "We appreciate financial donations for the classroom," she said.