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?

Having paid a shit load to have the kids attend- I wouldn't thank you. The kids should have but that's not on the parents at that age

I can't believe people saying it's a free holiday!!
I don't think that schools should run these world challenge trips.They are very divisive.

Wow ok.
So everytime you pay for something, you don't thank. That's nice.

I will say thank you. My children have benefitted from teachers, and volunteers giving up their time over the years and I always acknowledge their contribution with a thanks. These things make life times of memories for people.

My children were not on your trip, but thank you anyway. You are not unseen in what you do for others.

I think taking 16-18 year olds is a little different to taking primary age or younger teens. They should be thanking you and presumably they are responsible teens or they wouldn’t be on the trip. So while the admin side beforehand is a lot, I can’t imagine from your description that it was a hardship while there. It’s somewhere most parents can’t dream of going, so there is that. It might be one of the reasons parents don’t think to say thank you, because it does appear you’ve had a ‘jolly’ even if you don’t see it that way.

Clearly. In vino veritas about your character at any rate.

I think some people are being quite unfair and making this all about the trip bring a jolly because it's to Borneo and that there's no gain from it.

I teach geography and field work is compulsory, for A level we must study an area away from our local area which means a residential. I do not get paid any more for all the hours of organisation, for being on duty 24hrs a day whilst leading the trip with very little downtime or breaks, for spending the night in a&e with an unwell teen, for holding the sick bag for the travel sick teen, for the 2 hours spent searching for the lost mobile phone, for being woken in the night because they need a paracetamol, for the vigilance at every meal time trying to discretely ensure the student with an ed eats food without drawing attention to them....so essentially eating my meals standing up and wandering around the dining room, for the many many headcounts, for lugging the first aid kit around along with all the, consent forms and medical forms, the additional school mobile so students can contact me at any time day or night, for having to constantly explain why I can't let 17 yo go off and do things they would normally be allowed to do with their parents.....because if anything happens to that child I will always be at fault. I could go on all day. Of course the students should say thank you but it's also lovely to get a thanks from the parents as well, it really is the most exhausting thing running a school trip. Don't underestimate the stress of parenting 30 or 50 teenagers at once.

OP was it a Camps International type trip?
My daughter went to Costa Rica for 4 weeks this summer, I thanked the teaching staff who went. They have been amazing over the last two years, helping sbd supporting with the fund raising and planning.
Also on the trip, they were playing parent. Taking poorly ones to the doctor, comforting them when they were home sick, encouraging them when the project work was challenging and encouraging them to overcome obstacles.
I am and will be forever grateful for what they have done for my child.

@housethatbuiltme

Every parent at the school gate rants about them, no one is overjoyed at teachers charging huge amount to get free holidays but hey its too late though as the KIDS are told and then we are just stuck with the fallout.
Amazing you think a trip where you are responsible for 11 teens 24/7 is a holiday 😂

Huh? The teacher isn't getting your £2k 😂

I’d have expected the teen to thank you but would have thanked you both when getting them but also would write a note and pop it in on school starting again.

I've just left my job partly because the over and above became expected at the expense of time with my own family. No appreciation from anyone, just entitlement. Parents regularly not turning up on time to collect their children following a late night return from a trip, having to phone them, no apology let alone thanks for taking them was the norm. I got quite badly hurt recently during an activity (this was an accident) and was signed off to recover. School didn't even acknowledge my sick note let alone ask if I was OK. I resigned. It's only now that the new term is approaching that I realise what a weight has been lifted and what a mug I was.

because if anything happens to that child I will always be at fault.

Indeed. No mater that some posters say "They're 18." No matter if the child is disobedient. No matter if the child behaves badly, deliberately.

Teachers oi=n residential trips - any school trip, tbh - do a wonderful job. Thank you!

You say your are going free so your getting all these multiple once in a lifetime trips for free and want us to feel sorry for you because you didn't get a thank you from the people who paid and didn't even get to go because it took up part of the 6 weeks summer holiday you got off work which they don't?

There are so many factually incorrect statements here (before we start on the execrable grammar and non-existent punctuation), I can't even ...

The attitude from so many parents on this thread is why teaching has become such a challenging profession. The ingratitude and disrespect shown towards teachers and the work we do to educate, look after and prepare children for their adult lives is shameful, and these parents pass this attitude onto their own children, which is why so many schools have become such chaotic, stressful and downright dangerous places in which to work.

What I don’t understand is that if these ignorant parents genuinely believe that teachers have such an easy life with our long holidays, 3pm finishes and amazing perks like these free foreign jollies, why aren’t they signing up to train? It’s money for old rope, apparently!

I must say, the parents at our school were a bit disappointed to be asked for 4800 for similar and then informed that we were subbing the free teacher places. I was also annoyed the company did a presentation about the trip before speaking to parents. It caused such disappointment.

(I'm not saying people shouldn't have manners. Just off on a tangent about those trips!)

Teaching has become immensely challenging because busy, tired parents might assume their kid has said thank you and so driven home without interrupting a busy teacher? OK then! Maybe I'll retrain, because a trip to Borneo and a few ungrateful seeming parents seems a lot better than my current thankless job.

In most jobs you don't get paid overtime for overseas travel (e.g. over a weekend). Instead, the trip is paid for, just like yours, OP. I have never expected anyone to thank me for going on these work trips 😂

That's an insane amount of money but every trip your child has been on since Reception will involve 'subbing the teacher'. Trips generally already cost teachers money - childcare or their partner's lost earnings for childcare, other costs associated with the trip - of course they aren't going to pay more money to go to work. For what it's worth, as a teacher I'd never ever ever take children abroad. Absolutely not worth the risk when things go wrong.

But all of us need to arrange childcare and "not be there for our kids" when we travel for work. It's completely normal. Only teachers could make it sound so dramatic and feel this sense of martyrdom for something most of the rest of us do as business as usual.

You had to find accommodation every night? Em...you probably should have booked accommodation before you left. That's bizarre.

Just chiming in to say I've taken a bunch of 15 year olds abroad as a volunteer. I didn't even get paid! Got my expenses paid and took 10 days off paid work to do it. It was actually really fun. The kids were grateful and I can't remember whether the parents each thanked me or not. Only Germany though, not Borneo sadly.

Yes, I'm not sure as a parent I'd want my kids going somewhere where accommodation wasn't already sorted.

I mean, any of us could write similar about going on a work trip. There's lots of organisation and work involved, beforehand and during. This is not really unusual in the workplace.