Why is do parents not "thank" a teacher?

[Dcteacher]

I took 11 children to Borneo. For 2 weeks.

We did a lot.
Suba dived in the South China Sea.
Trekked the foothills of Mount Kinabalu.
Stayed in the jungle and learned jungle craft.
Spent to day on a tropical island.

On return. Not one single parent thanked me for the trip of a lifetime for their child.

I had spent the previous 2 years helping with fundraising, answering questions doing the paperwork, taking time out of my holiday. This is not in my job description. I don't have to do this.

Not one.

Why?

To be fair most of those who are sent abroad for work don't also have to use their holiday time to do it. They might push back if they were told they had to use annual leave to attend whatever conference it is for work.

Maybe parents have seen Greg Davis speaking about his experience on a school trip as a teacher? 😂😂😂

I don't think it's that people don't think thank you is warranted, it's the expectation that people should. If you're volunteering for the plaudits, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

I volunteer at a homeless shelter 2 nights a week every winter. Some of the guests are incredibly thankful, some are dealing with much bigger issues and are really rude, but we don't do it for the thanks.

I work in school and go on some voluntary trips too, but I don't give more than I'm glad to give. It's a choice, and some of them are fun/interesting, even if they're also hardwork.

I still haven't seen any explanation for why these hugely expensive trips are worthwhile and the head and organisers at my school can't tell me either

You can always tell on these threads who has and hasn't organized these types of trips for groups of teenagers.......

Well, because loads of people aren't teachers. You can also tell the ones who haven't had to scrimp and save to send their kids on these ridiculous trips.

And the ones who've never heard of mammers. You do realise teachers have kids and will at some point have scrimped and saved as well.

If you don't think your kids get any value from them don't send them. Plenty of parents so value the experiences and are appreciative of those who create the opportunities.

@needlesandhaystacks it's voluntary
It's not a requirement
If you require praise for a free holiday then don't do it

Hi, your post has made me think a lot and I feel quite sad now thinking about a recent trip my DC went to with school. It was only overnight and it's organised yearly for same year group. However when I collected them there was such a rush of parents and coaches and teachers that I felt like we should just take the kids and go. I remember my DC shouting thank you to one teacher quickly but I never really took an opportunity after to say it. It felt to me that this was just part of the curriculum . Even though it is, I don't think I appreciated that teachers do take time out of their personal lives to go to these trips and looking after kids is major pressure. You cannot take your eye off the ball for a second. Sorry this happened to you. Hopefully your post will make many of us realise that all that is needed is a genuine thank you.

I've never 'signed up' to go on residential. I either organise it and go or it doesn't happen for the children at all. In small primaries, that's the reality. There is no one else to take them.

From my perspective my eldest is a young carer and the school trip abroad was his one chance to go abroad as we couldnt afford to go as a family and his first holiday without caring responsibilities.

I didn't want him to go to Clacton and do more caring. he already knows how to do that better than most adults. I wanted him to have a break and an opportunity to do something totally different.

The school paid some out if a young carer fund. One of the others that went was living in a women's refuge as a domestic abuse victim and went for free.

It wasn't 11 days in borneo to be fair, but 5 days abroad.

My kids would have said thank you. I'm not sure what else the OP requires. I hope they at least enjoyed Borneo.

(Borneo seems the most insanely over the top place for a school trip tbh, I mean wtaf)

It just seems like such basic manners. I thank the person that scans my shopping despite the fact it is literally what they sit there getting paid it not like they've volunteered to take my shopping home in their break. If I went on a tour I would thank the guide yet they are also being paid to go on the tour. I can't get the mentality that the teacher should be grateful they got to take my kids off my hands for week or so.

You are quite adept at making this about the 'trip of a lifetime' for privileged kids. Bringing a child who lost her father to cancer to strengthen your point has weakened your argument considerably.

Many kids have hugely disadvantaged backgrounds. Many don't know who their father even is.

Bringing rich kids to a far flung destination because it enriches their lives is not fooling anyone. Come back to the thread when you have organised your hardship fund to take eleven hugely disadvantaged kids from a deprived background away for a week. Lets see how many teachers volunteer to do that instead of going to very nice destinations. There are three teachers in my immediate family. They jump at the chance of having trips away when they want to visit the destination themselves.

This wouldn't have happened at my children's school. Perhaps you have a particularly ignorant group of parents (and teenagers). Surely you'd make your child go back and say thank you. Rude fucks, I don't blame you for not doing it again.

When I picked my child up from their summer residential it was a chaos of luggage, hugs and rushing around. I managed to catch the eye of their coach lead teacher across the bedlam and mouth 'thank you'. I was thankful they were home in one piece, had been kept safe and had had a great time.

OP - I'm sorry you didn't get one thank you from any of the parents. That's crap. I honestly do think they would be thankful to you though. Sadly they didn't express it. Hopefully some of the youngsters did.

Clearly you’ve never led a school trip. They are stressful - I’ve taken children to some interesting places - to be fair not abroad - but you’re constantly counting, watching behaviour etc etc. They are far from easy. I’m always shattered at the end of a school trip.

You are being trusted to look after other people’s most loved ones - as teachers we take that very seriously which means we are on high alert from the moment we leave school premises.

Because people are pricks

I thank my childrens teachers every day - seriously. Just a simple "thank you for today" goes a long way I hope!

That's unfair.

How much did each child pay for this trip? And I wouldn't call or regard 18 year old as children. Yes, it would be nice if you had been thanked. It would be nice if everyone on the trip thanked everybody else who went for enhancing their experience. The parents may be unaware you were unpaid, they may think your free holiday was reward enough, they may think you wouldn't lead these holidays if you felt unappreciated.

Presumably your children are very young.

My guess is that they didn't know that it wasn't part of your job description.

OP doesn't say the children didn't say thank you. She thinks the parents. of 18yos. should have done it too.

My word

Firstly yes of course pupils and parents should say thank you. For all the reasons given. We've always done so, several times, with a shareable gift as well. The time and effort one teacher at our school has but into his geography trips to make them amazing and truly educational is incredible

Totally stunned at the idiots going on about the cost, free holidays etc
Incredibly naive and rude attitude

Christ. vom