- Day One: Send kind words/thanks.
- Day two: Send sweet treats.
- Day three: Buy something from their wish lists.
- Day Four: Staff members receive a special Mexican lunch while parents attend to classroom assignments. (Keep in mind that students have been trying to improve the quality of school food for months, while staff claim it’s not necessary. Sometimes students don’t eat at all because of of the poor quality of food they perceive.)
- Day Five: Send a teacher’s favorite snacks and drinks to fill their fridge.
This seems to be the kind of thing parents should organize if they wish, without being forced by the school. If the administration wants to do it, it should fund it.
It sounds like, “Hey, aren’t we awesome? Buy us stuff and tell us how awesome we are! Then they send reminders EVERY DAY. Sticky.
Do teachers and school staff deserve nice things? Yeah. But that’s not the right way to do it, in my opinion.
Agreed. Without a doubt, the school administration would like the parents to intervene and compensate for the school’s obvious lack of funding. So if you don’t like the school’s approach, Miss Manners suggests the solution is to volunteer to be the parent organizer instead.
Aren’t you sorry for asking?
Dear Miss Manners: I called a member of a social group to follow up on a question. The matter was urgent and needed to be resolved by the next morning, and it was the kind of thing that would be difficult to do in an email exchange.
The hon. member and his wife are in their 80s, I believe. When I had called the night before, around the same time, the husband said they were having dinner. I offered to call back, but he said no, and we talked briefly.
It seems that the older people get, the earlier they go to bed and the less they like to be “bothered” by calls in the evening. Maybe they eat and then want to get cozy and watch a movie. So generally I try to call sooner rather than later.
Even if I say, “Am I interrupting your dinner?” (which he didn’t give me), it seems like I’d still be in the doghouse for not guessing exactly when they’re eating. Any advice would be helpful.
As asked ? “I look like to keep guessing the best time to reach you. If I have additional questions, when is usually a good time to call? »
Miss Manners further points out that you are doing all this “old people” speculation and have offered to quit your niche just by yourself. Your old friend just said your call was perfectly fine.
New Miss Manners columns are published Monday to Saturday at washingtonpost.com/board. You can send questions to Miss Manners on her website, missmanners.com. You can also follow her @RealMissManners.
