Teacher's Day

What a wonderful sentiment: to honor those who teach, to say thank you for choosing a respected, but often underappreciated profession.

Ironically, during the same week of this holiday the teacher's at my College didn't receive their paychecks. They were told they would be waiting for them in their banks for over a week, but the money never appeared. Last time I checked, they were still waiting.

I did receive some gifts: 3 different boquets of flowers, and a really nice book in English about Lviv. I received the book a week late because the class that gave it to me only had 5 students the day of the holiday.

Many of my students didn't come to class on that day, which also happened to be the day of their presentations. So for teacher's day I had to adjust my planned lesson, and reduce their grades by 25% for being late (a new policy I've implemented which is shocking to them).

Other volunteers had no students at all. Or students who presented them with chocolates and then asked if they could be excused for the rest of the day. In one of my classes students had to give their presentations over the distracting voices of the teachers celebrating their holiday in the back of my classroom.

Nevertheless, however well-intentioned but misguided these celebrations were, the sentiment is there. Somewhere in history someone decided that teachers were important enough to merit their own holiday. And if it's the "thought that counts," it's a gift that makes me smile.