267: Propriety
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An apple. Nobody gives the teacher an apple anymore. In a first year of teaching first grade, here are the sorts of things that Mindy got from her kids. A typical first grader will bring me things that would range from students that wrapped up their old McDonald toys. A pencil from the dollar store wrapped up. Some people send in homemade cookies, which is very sweet. So last Christmas, the day before vacation, she was all the kids sitting on the carpet and some of the them have presents for her that they're all excited for her to open. And she has treats for them and all the kids want to be picked and they're raising their hands. So I have one student sitting so quietly and so anxious. So I call on him and brings me out this bag. Start opening it. Like, oh, this is great. I pull out these black slippers with little sliver speckles and on the top, they're sort of like that puffy, kind of material, the real soft and like, kind of like a feathery type of thing. And on the front of the slipper, in bright red, cursive writing, they say, play red with a little playboy bunny on the back of the slipper. So I pull these out and I'm like, oh, aren't these fancy? And they all start chanting 27, six year olds, put them on, put them on, put them on. And they're all just cheering and shouting. And the kids face, he was so proud and so excited about the slippers. But in my head, I'm thinking, did the parents have no idea? Do you think from from a kid point of view, the way when they saw the slippers, they just read them as, you know, fancy? Oh, absolutely. They had no idea that they said play rat, they had no idea. At least I don't think that they had any idea what the bunny would have represented. All they saw was fancy black slippers, silver sparkles, fuzzy things. That's what I love about this so much is that it wasn't just like one kid's judgment that like, this is the perfect present, that it's the entire class of six year olds. Like, you know, we may disagree on other things, but there is one thing that we can agree on. Oh, yeah, it wasn't just a boy or a girl or a couple of kids. It was the whole class. Showing, cheering. After school that day, as you might expect, Mindy nearly runs down the hall with her new slippers, eager to share the magic with a fellow first grade teacher. So I'm walking down the hall, knocking at her door. You're never going to believe what one of my students gave me today. I walk in, I put the slippers on. She says, oh, yeah, she pulls out her little lovely gift, some lingerie. And I literally gassed the actual lingerie. Yeah. Like, what was it? A thong and like a little tank top. Like a... Wait, the first grader gave her teacher or his teacher like a thong and a tank top? Yes. Was it like, was it sexy? You know, or was it like cotton, like cute girl? I would say cute girl. I say this is if it makes any difference at all. It's still a thong. Yeah. At what point exactly are you in the store or shopping online? I don't... whatever you're doing. At what point? At what point is that something that's okay to give your teachers, what I'd like to know? I mean, do you agree? Or is this, I mean, am I a little bit out of line? No, you know, I think I think all of America, well, not all of America, but I think like, I think many people are with you on this, including them. Okay. Because at that point, when she held them and then I'm thinking, when they're looking through the sizes, I mean, are they checking you out? And that's clearly something that like the parents helped order, yes? Oh, yeah. The parents are in on that. I would say the parents completely ordered that. It seemed like there would be kind of an uncomfortable parent teacher meeting after that. If I was dating somebody and they gave me a thong and I hadn't known them that long or we'd only been dating a short period of time, that would sort of be like, okay, how unappropriate, right? Okay. Maybe this is kind of etiquette question that we should all already know the answer to, but I have to say, I found it kind of a stumper. You're a first grade teacher and the parents of your students buy you a thong or slippers that say play a ret on them. Not the right kind of gift for a teacher, you think. So is it impolite to actually say something to them about it? Do you just accept graciously? Both teachers, in this case, accepted graciously. So I, yeah, when I was writing out my thank yous to my students, I just said, thank you for the
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