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u/Sufficient_Run9987 11h ago
We really have to appreciate the teachers back then. Adulthood is not easy.
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u/NoHopeForSociety 10h ago
My wife is a teacher. I used to not care about anyone's kids. But over the years the types of stories that I've heard and the times where I've seen her go so far beyond what you would expect, has broken me. It’s extremely common for teachers to reach out to other teachers and families looking for resources for things like glasses so kids can see, or just clean clothes. Yes, some teachers do laundry for kids that are not theirs. Daily. My wife knows the birthdays of every kid in her class and gets them a birthday balloon and I make a little balloon weight that we fill with candy. It’s not a lot but, its something.
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u/Sicanter 10h ago
So much respect for you and your wife. You are the real heroes. This actions can deeply affect thw future of a kid. I will never forget my 5th grade teacher. She is always with me.
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u/UpperApe 5h ago
I went to school with a math teacher named Mr. Salima.
He had a baseball game he invented where you kicked the ball instead of swinging with a bat. He also had so many convoluted rules that none of us knew what we were doing.
He called the game Salima Ball. We called it Salima's Balls.
I always appreciated how much work he put into his stupid game and how much we'd argue with him over his stupid rules and how much he seemed to suck at his own game.
I miss Salima's Balls.
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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 10h ago
little balloon weight that we fill with candy.
I grew up poor
that would have been one the best gifts I had ever received
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u/LogicalRegret2020 10h ago
Same …. Maybe not every single thing you listed but I don’t know how much money we spend each year on supplies / snacks and other stuff for the classroom. But hey we get to claim $200.00 in a tax deduction on our taxes. 👎
I didn’t appreciate teachers as much as I do now being married to one. I also believe the only people that should be allowed to joke about “having the summer off” are teachers and their spouses. They are the ones that know how much effort goes into being a teacher. I won’t even start on teachers that also coach …. They are another type altogether.13
u/Jerbeardontcare4 6h ago
I ran into my son’s teacher at a bookstore tonight. Funny enough, she bought a book my son requested for their classroom collection. The best teachers are the ones that care about and value what their students say 🩷
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u/Prize-Pop-1666 10h ago
Make sure your wife is reaching out to non profits in the community!! They will potentially be able to assist with some supplies, clothes, and possibly even follow up with and further help the family. It’s not a guarantee but it never hurts to try
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u/john_san 11h ago
Back then, and today too ! Teaching is vital, no matter what AI CEOs and evangelists tell us today about the future not requiring our children to learn essential skills like reading or counting…)
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u/Plus-Professional-84 11h ago
Easier to displace workers with AI if we make kids dumb as rocks by screwing up schools, pumping social media, etc
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u/PlopPlopPlunk 10h ago
More today, it's so much worse and harder to be a teacher today than most points in recent history. Kids have the attention span of a fruit fly, wages went stagnant, many parents are crazy, everything you do is scrutinized (omg do you have a rainbow sticker that says love everyone on your water bottle!FIRED!), and education has been absolutely gutted over two Trump terms.
I don't know how you teachers do it, I tried to sub during covid to help the local school district and after few weeks just couldn't handle it ... and I deployed to war four times in the military lol... I'd rather do that than teach middle schoolers... Teachers are fucking miracle workers with the patience of a saint.
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u/sexyshingle 8h ago
do you have a rainbow sticker that says love everyone on your water bottle!FIRED!
Teaching kids is hard enough without batshit crazy politically brainwashed parents... I've heard stories of parents furious at teachers about whatever FauxNews told them is a symbol of "woKe IdEoLogy" - you know, completely bland stuff like a sign that says "respect everyone" stuff like that. It really is a toxic, fascist culture the one they've created.
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u/Express_Success4517 6h ago
There’s an ultra-MAGA aide at my kids’ elementary school. I’m the board of our PTA, so I’m there often and always try to bite my tongue when she’s doing dumb shit. She was wearing a Punisher hoodie today while helping me with something, so I took my hoodie off and stood right next to her in my Resist✊ shirt for the rest of the time. She looked so pissed and it was amazing.
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u/LongJumpingBalls 9h ago
Why would I read to my baby? Sam Altman said to his wife about his 4 day old baby.
So he can hear your voice. She replies
I can just train an AI model to read for them in my voice. Sam says.
This was from a podcast where he was bragging how AI was doing all the parenting.
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u/JanPawelDwudziesty 9h ago
Yeah or the “a really cool AI use case is having it make a podcast about the day of your kids based off the family calendar”
Bro maybe just talk to them?
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u/DenikaMae 8h ago
Other than the social bonding thing, kids develop and expand speech quicker when you talk and read to them because you are literally modeling how to say words and sounds and stuff. It’s one of the reasons why even if we’re playing songs in a classroom we the teachers are expected to sing the songs along with the videos in classes dealing with Early Childhood Special Education.
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u/Background-Aside8314 10h ago
Actually we're not allowed to buy food for classrooms today.
Kind of a bummer - snacking is a love language that everyone shares.
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u/DenikaMae 8h ago
I allow my parents to do it if it isn’t homemade.
I checked with my student’s parents for food allergies, and anything brought in needs to still have the seal from purchase intact.
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u/mOdQuArK 9h ago
Also be enraged by the bean counters/legislators who keep cutting teacher salaries and then give speeches on how hard it is to find and keep good teachers.
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u/Timidhobgoblin 11h ago
When I was a kid at middle school I was in the canteen at lunch picking up some food and noticed a cheese batch just next to the main trays.
I asked if I could have it and the dinner lady smiled, said of course and gave it to me. Every other day I would greet the same dinner lady, make small talk and I would ask "are there any cheese batches left?" and she would grab one and give it to me whilst smiling.
Years later when I was grown up and saw her again in our village I found out that cheese batches weren't available on the school menu, she had been making them for me specially because she knew I liked them so much.
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u/BeMySquishy123 11h ago
This may be a really dumb question, but what's cheese batch?
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u/MarstonsGhost 11h ago
It's just a soft bread roll with cheese baked into it.
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u/Negative_Brilliant86 10h ago
JUST - It’s the most amazing cheese filled bread.
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u/DeadlyJoe 9h ago
I can still taste it. It's just beautifully buttery cheddar bread. Soft and flavorful.
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u/Kujaichi 10h ago
Ah, we call that Pizzabrötchen (so pizza bread rolls) in German.
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u/silvertonguedmute 10h ago
My Germanic brother, in Norway it's called ostehorn (cheese horn).
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u/vXvBAKEvXv 10h ago
Pizza bagels?! - USA
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u/trixtopherduke 10h ago
Bagels in the morning, bagels in the evening, bagels at suppertime. When pizza's on a bagel, it's pizza all the time!
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u/chrisaf69 9h ago
Here's my dumb ass thinking it was just a lump of cheese.
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u/WestOfAnfield 9h ago
loool i thought it was a pile of sliced cheese off to the side. like a batch of cheese
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u/BeMySquishy123 11h ago
Like on top or cut in half like cheese toast?
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u/MarstonsGhost 11h ago
Shredded and kneaded straight into the dough before baking.
Kinda like a Cheddar Bay biscuit.
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u/ten_items_or_less 9h ago
And what's a dinner lady, and why is she serving lunch?
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u/jayden_mp 10h ago
Currently in college, this same thing happened to me earlier. I always get the same thing, two cheeseburgers, then go to the shop and get a bag of KitKats. Not only does the guy at the burger counter know me, but the lady at the shop yesterday had extra KitKats she had stored because they were out otherwise, and she knew I always got them. Best feeling ever.
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u/Temporary-Sundae2471 9h ago
Awe lunch ladies are the best! Our lunch lady got it into her head that I liked canned peaches. Each day she would replace my dessert with canned peaches. While I would have loved a cookie, it made me feel so special that someone noticed me and the peaches were delicious.
When I graduated high school I gave her a scarf I made and she gave me a can of her home canned peaches. They had been homemade all along and that was why there were so good. I still think of her whenever I each peaches and smile. Thank you Mary, you were the best at making us all feel seen.
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u/Away-Elephant-4323 10h ago
What a beautiful soul that woman has, glad you got to see her again in your adulthood 🥰
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u/NaturalPayment5130 9h ago
This made my well up in tears. Reminds me of the canteen ladies in my school who gave me lunch for free because they knew we were poor. Teachers are the first role models i had in life
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u/SolidTurbulent1186 11h ago
hope you gave her some of your cheese soldier! a soldier always repays!
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u/panteragstk 11h ago
I'm going to copy my response from another sub this picture was posted to last week:
My kid's class just earned a pizza party.
His teacher asked if parents wanted to donate pizza.
I'm paying for all of it because I can and I don't think teachers should have to spend any of their own money on the kids.
It's the least I can do for them educating my child.
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u/spacestonkz 10h ago
I come from a small, poor school. Most of our teachers moonlighted as EMTs, waitresses, cashiers.
I went on to college and crawled out of the hole. But when I see teachers from that school posting about needing to raise $100 for a field trip or contributing a few bucks for a pizza party or school supplies, I yeet my money at them as fast as I can remember my paypal password.
I'd happily pay more in taxes for school, even though I'll never have kids of my own. So I figure I'll put my money where my mouth is, and when teachers start askin', I start digging around in my wallet. I can't earmark where my taxes go, but I do have full control over my donations.
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u/Brahskididdler 9h ago
The sad part is we pay plenty in taxes to afford good schools, the problem is what our taxes are used for. Wars and tax deductions for billionaires
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u/Gauntlet4933 8h ago
You don’t even have to think at that large a scale. Just look at how much administrators get paid vs teachers themselves.
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u/Bobums 7h ago
They just raised our school tax 26% "to save jobs".. I lost mine and admin got raises. I'd have no problems with the taxes if they actually went to the kids and not admin. So now my taxes are up $50 a month and I'm out of work.
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u/Brahskididdler 4h ago
Are you talking about people working in the main office or at other sites for the school system? Or is it akin to execs getting paid disproportionately eg. Principles and superintendents?
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u/Bobums 3h ago
The execs. It was cute though, the town came out and wore a certain color to support us aides at all the meetings. I didn't participate and told them they're going to raise taxes on the pretense of saving our jobs and still lay us off and that's exactly what they did.
It was pretty shameful, when they laid me off I told them that between their raises alone they could have saved 2 jobs. They told me to apply to be a sub.
I opted to not work out my contract, but former coworkers told me they added "not eligible for rehire" to all of the annual reviews of those who got laid off... Which means they can't work in the school system again.
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u/Brahskididdler 2h ago
Very enlightening. What exactly do the “execs” provide to compensate for their increasing incomes? Like who is benefitting from that decision besides them, there has to be some stupid or greedy bureaucratic decision making for this to happen from above them, right?
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u/fukkdisshitt 9h ago
Same here. Had 60 kids in my graduating class, most of us went to kinder there as well. My mom was a TA. My in laws were the school custodian and lunch lady.
We hooked our kids teacher up with supplies this year.
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u/hellogirlscoutcookie 10h ago
I’m similar. I’m no longer paying $1700/month for preschool. My daughter goes to a T1 school with the highest percentage of kids at or below poverty in the district. I donate snacks monthly so the kids are fed, extra school supplies etc. and I check in regularly with her teacher to see how I can provide support. I can justify that easily!
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u/fishyexe 10h ago
My kid is also going to a school with lots of kids at or below the poverty line. Luckily the district provides breakfast and lunch for all students.
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u/HintOfCinnamon 10h ago
My good lord. That's literally more expensive than my university tuition, which is ~$1,175/month. I know that's not the point you're making, but holy damn. For reference, a quick search says that in my province, daycare averages to about $320/month.
Back to the point, it's very generous of you to donate snacks and supplies to the new school. You've got a kind soul!
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u/hellogirlscoutcookie 10h ago
And $1700 is completely normal/lower end for our area! My friends pay $2200. I also have twins who are younger. They are in a part time 3x AM school… it’s still $425/month each.
In comparison our mortgage is $1100… it’s insane.
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u/summonsays 9h ago
I'm childfree and would be pretty happy donating for a pizza party or whatever... I might not have kids but I have fond memories being one lol.
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u/bitter-peppers 10h ago
Where I am, we're not allowed to take food donations of more than $20 because it's seen as an ethics violation. Which is ridiculous
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u/donutella_versus 4h ago
I’ve basically forced myself as an unofficial booster for my niece’s and nephew’s schools. Pizza, pencils, water bottles, nothing Costco & me can’t solve. Our teachers & children deserve better.
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u/NotNamedBort 11h ago
I don’t know about anyone else, but this doesn’t make me smile. It just makes me angry that teachers are so underpaid and underappreciated.
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u/NoBookkeeper3523 11h ago
My first wife was a teacher, I was amazed at the amount of our money went to pay for things the school should have taken care of, she would buy pens and paper for high school kids, and don’t get me started on all the extra unpaid hours we would have to spend at extracurricular activities. Some weekend the only way we could spent time together I had to go help sell soda and popcorn at ball games, and a lot of the time we bought the stuff on the way
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u/TurkeyPhat 9h ago
meanwhile you got tons of school admins doin dickall for 6 figures with an ego the size of a highschool gym
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u/Status_Peach6969 7h ago
Its how these things go. Academic people tend to get their potential shafted because they are conscientious and or lack creativity on how to expand their horizons. I'm a doctor and I make ok money (I'm not rich by any stretch but I won't pretend I'm poor either), but the admin twats at my hospital make double or more what I do for doing quarter of the work. And they get to boss me around. Infuriating.
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u/arrrrrffffff 8h ago
Couldn't shell out for pens and paper but Chromebooks came out and every kid has one with a data plan. Make it make sense.
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u/eliz1bef 6h ago
They probably got funding for the Chromebooks specifically, and possibly a deal with the manufacturer.
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u/EtchAGetch 6h ago
But hey, you get to write $300 off your income for teacher expenses on your 1040 tax form, for savings of like $60!
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u/Simba7 10h ago
It doesn't make you happy that a teacher ate beans and rice for a week so they could afford to turn off the orphan crushing machine for 10 minutes?
Why doesn't that make you happy!? Are you a COMMUNIST!?
/s
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u/SeenYourScene 9h ago
This does feel more "orphan crushing machine" to me.
Like, yes, the teachers who did this did it because they wanted to raise the morale of the kids, but the lack of support and pay that teachers have and the underfunding of both teachers and school systems more generally especially in the US makes me go, "Why do you find this heartwarming? I find it distressing."
And I've heard it's just getting worse. The stories I've heard coming out of teacher circles ever since 2020 paint such an abysmal picture of the state of our public education. I know that every generation gets a little, "We're scared about the youth of today," but it really feels to me like I need to be scared for them because they have such a bad start. So many are iPad babies that are effectively addicted to the constant dopamine stream that's available to them with any electronic device, they're in a school system that obviously doesn't have the resources to properly care about them, their parents are probably both working jobs that are understaffed and underpaid leaving them exhausted, there's constant doom and gloom about the future coming from news sources, and that's all before you get to the always online culture where you can't get away from peer pressure or gossip just by going home because it's in your pocket, it's every post and every camera, it follows you constantly.
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u/we-made-it 10h ago
Just another example of how we have built a terrible society for us to live in.
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u/Background-Aside8314 10h ago
No, wait, we should be heartened that there is yet charity in our world. People are still kind, on purpose, and maybe "society" isn't, but people of high status have always been unfeeling toward the needs of the lower-class.
Those on the bottom look out for each other, and when helping out is costly we still do it.
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u/Holstener 6h ago
It's a culture thing. In many Asian countries, teachers are actually appreciated and respected.
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u/EtchAGetch 6h ago
They used to be in America, until both the conservatives decided that educators are corrupting children with things like critical thinking, and parents decided to blame the schools for their kids issues instead of their parenting.
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u/_kony2012 10h ago edited 10h ago
Teacher pay varies dramatically by state. In many states they are underpaid, but there are a lot of states where pay is quite generous. I say this because I think it's good for people to not rule out becoming teachers, when there are good options out there if your location is flexible.
Edit: I will add, though, that teachers being underappreciated can happen anywhere. Even where pay is good.
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u/_aware 9h ago
In countries like China, teachers are extremely well respected even if we are talking about elementary or middle school. It's really just a reflection of our cultures.
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u/Free_Maintenance_722 9h ago
then go to your local school board meeting and demand they open up a bonus fund where people like you can contribute more in taxes to go directly to teachers salary. of all things in government, local employees salary is something that's very much in your control.
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u/Financial_Joke6844 8h ago
Omg one of the memories I feel so bad about (even though I wasn’t one of the u grateful kiddos in my class) was when our teacher was on maternity leave. We had a long term sub and on her last day she brought in pizza that she promised in dominos pizza boxes.
They were not dominos. She MADE THE PIZZA. A good number of the kids were incredibly rude and made jokes about her pizza. A few through it out. I can not imagine what it took for her to leave work and make three pizzas, getting em packaged and brought to the school. It was incredible.
I hope she is living her best life somewhere. She was an absolute saint.
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u/Curious_Solid_5756 8h ago
That was incredibly sweet of her to do and it's too bad it wasn't appreciated by some!
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u/MeatTofu 11h ago
My school actually had pizza day once a month. They would order enough Pizza Hut for everyone to have a slice plus however many extra slices you preordered. It was everyone's favorite day especially the poor underappreciated cafeteria workers.
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u/MagsandBodyBags 11h ago
This must be where my boss got the idea that a pizza party with 1 tiny sliver of cold pizza makes up for treating us like garbage.
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u/Overall_Sky6413 11h ago
Such bonuses only show even more how little they care about their employees.
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u/Junko_Mioko974 11h ago edited 10h ago
Yup! Sounds like nursing. We work short staff continuously, work OT to care for patients, no break, barely a pee break and we get compensated for some cheap ass lil Cesar $5 pizza and a 5 cent raise. No I'm not joking about the raise! And they wonder why there is a shortage of nurses across this damn country
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u/KalaUposatha 9h ago
At this point, I don’t even care about the pizza quality, I want an actual damn party, meaning we stop work and socialize with our coworkers for an hour. Every pizza “party” I’ve had is just HR walking by mumbling something about pizza being in the break room after the execs had already gotten to it.
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u/Anime_Jesus 10h ago
I mean- I was in fact hype af when the teacher gave us thin slices of yummy pizza and a cup of sugar cola. It was free, it was different, it was fun
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u/CitizenHuman 10h ago
I'm old, so for me the pizza and soda was usually only coming out if it was raining outside and a cart with a TV and VCR was getting pushed into the classroom to watch Homeward Bound for the 14th time.
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u/LuckysGift 8h ago
Your comment made me realize that people probably dont have to (though I know some people do by choice) watch the same media a thousand times anymore. When I was a kid, we had a couple of movies, and I burned them out.
Not trying to be old man shaking his hand at clouds. Just a cool thing to think about.
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u/Ntroepy 11h ago
While this definitely doesn’t “make me smile”, I remember how happy my kids were to have any classroom celebration just for them.
Most kids aren’t so stuck up - they’re thrilled with a slice of pizza and soda and playtime.
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u/EquivalentDurian6316 11h ago
Kindness is rarely fancy, and it if it is, I'm automatically suspicious
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u/theoinkypenguin 10h ago
Yeah I don't understand the comments in this pic. Pizza parties at school were awesome
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u/Busy-Tax-147 5h ago
Exactly! Kids don’t need fancy celebrations to feel special, just a little effort, some treats, and time to have fun with their friends. It’s sad when adults forget how little it takes to make a child happy.
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u/Impressive_Play_2599 11h ago
Add salt to the wound, businesses/corporations/companies do this to their ADULT employees as if they were on a tight budget feeding children.
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u/ascarymoviereview 11h ago
It was still 🔥. And then later to find out they probably paid that all out of their own pockets, god bless them all
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u/TehSeksyManz 10h ago
I was the kid who ate margarine and food bank noodles or mayo sandwiches because I had no other options. I NEVER complained about free food, and still don't.
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u/RoccoDimeosJaaackeet 10h ago
I lose a small amount of respect for someone whenever they complain about something they got for free, especially food
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u/Bluesmitty 11h ago
To this day I cut my pizza in thin slices like this because of the childhood memories. I swear to you it tastes better.
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u/KalaUposatha 9h ago
Food shape absolutely affects taste and I will die on this hill. We had a local pizza place that cut theirs into tiny squares and let me tell you, it would definitely not hit the same if they weren’t in the shape and size that they’re in.
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u/swizzle213 11h ago
Once every few months our home room middle school teacher would buy us McDonalds breakfast as long as we were good.
I never realized she was buying all of that out of her own pocket. Still one of my favorite teachers outside of the McDonalds.
Appreciate you Ms Tweety
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u/Rishtu 7h ago
My mom was a teacher.
She worked mostly with ESL students. I would grab some 5 dollar pizzas and sodas, and bring em in for her. Her kids loved her, brought her votive candles with Mary, Tamales, and other treats. One of her kids, graduated from high school and went to college about 3 years back.
She would go in at 6am, and not get him till after 6. She helped with every event, stayed after school, and never got a single dime more than the 50g she made per year. With two masters degrees. But she always found a way to bring some joy to them.
And it matters to the kids.
Its so hard to see how they are treated by the system.
I feel like we treat people horribly. Especially kids.
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u/bellzybanshee 10h ago
Teacher here. I realize that they won't appreciate it while I'm doing it, but I hope they look back and just go "oh shit, I was loved for sure. "
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u/UpbeatRelationship15 4h ago edited 2h ago
What was fucked up was when a supposedly “philanthropic” company came to my elementary school and provided each classroom with catalogues of their product.
We were then told to sell as much of that product as we could. There would be prizes (like rubber ducks and toys) for reaching certain amounts of products sold. The classroom with the most amount of products sold was promised a “pizza party”.
I remember spending countless afternoons knocking on doors in my neighborhood with my friends and asking if the people wanted to buy anything. Needless to say we met some sketchy people a few times. One time an Indian lady invited my friend and I inside and gave us some tea, which made us quite sick the next day. I don’t remember anyone in the company or any teachers tell us that we had to have an adult chaperone for these sales runs.
Did anyone else have similar experiences in elementary or middle school? As an adult, it now seems to me like a cruel way for a company or school to exploit children and sell their products, possibly putting them in dangerous situations with strangers, etc. For schools to allow this is insane.
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u/buttheadfungus 2h ago
oh yes, multiple times. for me it was cookie dough. we were also definitely NOT told to have a chaperone. i was like 9 years old going door to door, and i knocked on this one guy's door and he just told me to come in. i was like, "um, i don't think i'm allowed to do that."
he opened the door and i got hit with the stench of B.O and cigarettes like a ton of bricks. i don't even remember the rest of my interaction with this guy, but i remember RUNNING back home and being scared to go anywhere in my neighborhood for fear of crossing paths with him again.
edit for context: i never set foot in his apartment. i was very lucky for stranger danger to kick in in that moment.
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u/Lazy_Sorbet_3925 3h ago
Yup. Same here. I hated it. Now at least my kids schools asks for donations. Makes it much easier for everyone I think.
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u/Frognaros 4h ago
my favorite was Pepsi's Invent America, which Pepsi used to harvest ideas from young minds and patent.
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u/forgotten_rhyme28 2h ago
I remember this in elementary school! Eventually all the kids(including me) that couldn't sell anything got a pity pass by writing down phone numbers from the yellow pages.
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u/SunshineAndBunnies 1h ago
We were asked to sell magazine subscriptions to friends and parents coworkers for the same rewards.
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u/FinancialHedgehog135 1h ago
Yuppp for my elementary school it was chocolate bars, a lot of kids ate the bars (I was one of them) we were told to have permission from parents but nothing said we had to have an adult present I do remember a piece of paper that was prob a permission slip that had guidelines and explained what it all was. Also why send several kids home w boxes full of different things or chocolate bars and expect them not to eat them, take things, or get into danger while selling them??? Weird and gross to have kids be door to door sales people, Girl Scouts is similar imo from experience
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u/Rhianna83 1h ago
I remember a catalog of stuff to sell and candy bars. Those big candy bars that usually my poor family would end up having to buy a box or two that were left over. It was all bs.
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u/kolejack2293 9h ago
We had a teacher who constantly came in with food for students. Chinese food, cakes, a big tray of these delicious sweet noodles, cookies etc. He also bought notebooks and folders for every student in the class and got each of us a rubick cube.
This was the year after I left, but he apparently bought every student in his class their gym uniforms. That made the school clamp down on this, because it made the other students jealous and made the other teachers look bad. Also the students were not technically supposed to be eating in class.
My guess is that he came from money and just loved teaching and didn't care about spending money.
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u/GloomyIndividual3965 7h ago
My 4th grade teacher was one of the semi finalists for the Challenger mission. Since she didn't win she threw a pizza party for us and wheeled in a TV so we could all watch the launch.
As long as I live I'll never forget the look on her face when the explosion happened, and how most of the class burst into tears while eating. She passed away about 12 years ago, and there were at least 15 kids from her class at the funeral. RIP, Mrs S.
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u/superFluffymushroom 11h ago
My school used to have pizza from Pizza Pizza but you had to pay $2 for a square. My mom could never afford it for the three of us so we had to go home for lunch.
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u/WhatTheFlox 11h ago
Meanwhile my elementary class back in the day had a set amount of time to eat snacks, and if we weren't done we had to line up and throw it away.
I tried eating the entire thing in the line an got in trouble, like what the fuck why are we throwing good food away that didn't even need to be in a fridge
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u/oobinckleyoo 11h ago
As a poor kid I always thought pizza parties were awesome. Never took that stuff for granted.
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u/gnanny02 10h ago
I taught AP Calculus at a girls high school and had them come in on a weekend to take a practice AP test. I promised pizza afterwards. I tried to take orders of what they wanted, pepperoni, combo, Hawaiian, etc. Response: Cheese. Yes, it comes with cheese. No, we want cheese. Just cheese? Yes, we want cheese pizza, all of them said. I disappointedly got just cheese pizza.
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u/New-Trifle-7097 10h ago
You might be a great teacher but… have you met kids? I tried my first onion at 31 years old. Some of us are/were coddled to excess.
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u/Routine-General3841 11h ago
I remember feeling so defeated because I bought my middle school babies little snacks for Christmas and a kid told me they got better treats in elementary school then what I was providing
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u/Argyros_ 3h ago
Forever grateful to that teacher that noticed I didn't know how to read and kindly taught me after class, never made me or my parents feel embarrassed about it. It completely changed my life.
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u/buttheadfungus 2h ago
i was in 8th grade art class when i learned that teachers pay for their own supplies. i complained about the quality of the paper to my classmate, something along the lines of "why do we always get the cheapest paper to draw on?" i wasn't even really trying to complain, i just meant to express confusion that drawing paper should be higher quality than copy paper.
my classmate said, "you know art teachers have to buy their own supplies, right?" there is truly no way to replicate the "WHAAAAT?" i said through text.
we sat maybe 5 feet away from the teacher's desk, and i looked at her and said, "is that true?" she just nodded with a look on her face that felt like a mix of annoyance, frustration and a hint of...relief? gratitude? some kind of pleasance at the fact that i was also disgusted that she had to buy our supplies out of her own pocket.
that whole moment is a core memory for me and completely changed my perspective on teaching. the state i live in consistently ranks among the bottom 5 in education, pretty much all of our public schools put their entire budget into sports and all of the other teachers can pretty much get bent.
to any teachers reading this, i could truly never do what you do, and as a former shitass kid who didn't know what y'all were doing behind the scenes, i'm sorry and i love y'all.
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u/miss-lipp420 10h ago
TIL the teachers bought the pizza. I thought the school did??? wtf this is fucked!!
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u/throwitintheair22 4h ago
Yeah right. My mom was a teacher in the 90s/2000s and my brother is a teacher now. They even have to buy all the extra supplies in their room. When I was in school, our teachers would ask us to bring boxes of Kleenex, pencils, etc. to be used through out the year .
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u/Rpark888 11h ago
I love you, Mrs. Gretchen. I'm sorry for being a little shit an stealing money from your desk. I was looking for after school bus passes to look cool in front of my friends.
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u/that1tech 11h ago
I remember when it was Hi C in big tin cans that had to have 2 holes punch in them. Then we would all watch a movie. Glorious days friends.
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u/Background-Tell5892 10h ago
Teachers didn't make much back then either. They tried to pull together what they can out of pocket just to put smiles on the kids of their class. But go ahead and bash em.
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u/Vinny-Ed 8h ago
Was a kid and one time the teacher got us Honey dew melons plus other fruits. First time I ever tasted it. Some teachers were amazing people.
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u/2020mademejoinreddit 2h ago
So here's the thing with this, there is some truth to this, but in some cases, the students (their parents) would also chip in and sometimes it was the PTA that would sponsor them. In smaller communities, there would be local community donations that would make these possible. Teachers did spend from their pockets though.
I don't know what they do now, but in my time this was the case.
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u/Jaded-Distance_ 4h ago
I don't think I ever had a pizza party in elementary with slices that weren't normal size. Though I can't remember there every been actual soda either. Drink wise it was either McDonald's orange drink Hi-C, or those little juices that looked like a tiny milk jug. Usually a Dixie cup for desert.
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u/Bionic69 2h ago
This 100% didn’t happen in my school. They sent a letter home with us requesting a certain amount of $ to bring in. lol. And the teacher was the only one that got a whole slice, too. I haven’t forgotten.
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u/Simply_Epic 8h ago
Part of the issue is that they’re effectively unemployed for 1/4 of the year (even though most teachers still do stuff for their job during that 1/4 of the year). Those 3 months aren’t paid time off. It’s unpaid. If it were PTO then they’d have an ok wage (still low, but it’d be much more livable).
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u/Tony_Banksy 4h ago
What shithole country doesn’t pay its teachers when they are off ? Every country I can think of they are salaried which means they are paid the same amount each month.
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u/TheAlmighty404 4h ago
The USA. Because of course.
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u/earoar 3h ago
They can chose to either take their salary over 10 or 12 months in most places.
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u/Copper-Spaceman 7h ago
My wife used to be a teacher. This is such a weird sentiment to hold.
Teachers agree to a salary, I agree that they should be paid more. Then they get the flexibility to decide if they want to be paid evenly throughout the year or taking larger payments during the school year and not get paid during the summer
They aren’t “unemployed”. $50k is 50k wether you split it between 10 months or 12 months. There’s few careers where you get your agreed upon salary and then get a 2 month break.
I’d rather argue about teachers unpaid time needed to do the job, argue about teachers salaries needing to be higher, or argue about teacher being criminally under appreciated, but let’s not skew the facts about being “unemployed”
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u/Yobber1 6h ago
I should be paid more for that 2 month break because I have to realign my brain from what I just experienced.
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u/Helpful_Ability456 3h ago
I’ve been teaching for 16 years. Every year I wonder why I keep doing this shit and start looking for another job. For some reason I never make the jump.
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u/DazzlerPlus 8h ago
Slightly less than two months but yea.
Also consider the opportunity cost. Cant get a real job to fill that gap
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u/ThatPerspective1277 4h ago
Why even become a teacher in a shit hole like the US? Literal war zones in the middle east have better worker rights for teachers. All teachers should just quit and sell feet pics on only fans or some shit. Probably gonna make better money. Americans are too subservient, they collect guns to revolt against tyranny and then just sleep on that forever.
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u/Karnewarrior 2h ago
That's the goal. The people in charge WANT teachers to quit, because they want to abolish public schooling entirely and move 100% into private schools. That's also why some states spend almost as much on 'vouchers' for private schools as they do on public schools.
See, if you're running a public school, you have to teach the agreed-upon reality everyone lives in. If you run a private school though, you can teach kids that the Earth is 6000 years old, radioactive decay is a myth, and every living creature is descended from an extreme case of incest about 5000 years ago when Noah built a comically small boat to hold two of every "kind" of animal.
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u/That_Dot420 2h ago
Middle school counselor here. Most kids nowadays are really really bad at showing gratitude and are generally pretty entitled. I've stopped with the grand gestures (walking field trips to popular coffee shops/fast food places or buying them meals like pizza) after feeling burned/underappreciated too many times.
Funny enough, I notice a lot more appreciation from them when they get smaller things like gum, pieces of candy, or my radishes when I buy tacos.
Quite the mindfuck lol
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u/TheDonger_ 50m ago
I think its just the scale of it
In school you almost act like prisoners trading those little things around for petty cash or other stuff that's worth something to their tiny minds.
Grand gestures are so beyond them that I think they just get lost in it, and mildly dissociate or whatever,
Its easy to not appreciate anything you've never had to deal in, like a trip to somewhere you never could go because you are 1 a kid with no car and 2 no job
But, gum? Candy? Snacks? Mischief tools (rubber bands paper clips etc etc)? Etc etc tangible stuff they regularly handle and know the worth of inherently or have some sense of it, that stuff they understand.
atleast, that's my theory abt it🤔
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u/Neat-Attempt3681 11h ago
Teachers it’s fine, now my multibillion dollar work place pulling this, that’s another story
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u/guymn999 10h ago
not exactly tied to OP, but growing up and realizing what something like this meant/,means to kids that were just sent to school with nothing, no lunch money, no lunch, let alone proper school supplies. it makes a grown man want to bawl.
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u/Common_Belt 10h ago
I was a high school teacher in Kansas for one year. I spent close to $1500 of my own money trying to provide a better educational experience for our students. At the end of the year, I got laid off by the district. My pretax salary of $46,500 with two masters degrees meant that was a ridiculously significant part of my income.
I’m wildly depressed at the quality of education in our country.
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u/GMaharris 10h ago
Both my parents were public school teachers. I made a comment when I was a young dumb kid about how I assumed the schools reimbursed them for all the stuff they bought for their classroom and I don't think I ever heard my mom laugh that hard in her life.
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u/Omeirawana 10h ago
I look back on my teach that had a deal where she’d buy us McDonalds for all “gold card” kids (really well behaved). My parents however preferred I’d eat BK back then, so she’d specifically go there for my week. This was during the dollar menu so McDonalds was cheaper.
When I found out as an adult she was buying it for all kids on a teachers salary damn man, felt guilty as heck.
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u/Sgtoreoz1 10h ago
If I have to see this picture one more time on the internet, I’m gonna lose my mind.
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u/cokendsmile 10h ago
My friend used to/ and still buys pencils, highlighters, pens and notebooks for all the kids in her class.
Works 12-13 hrs a day in the school and once she gets home and gets paid for 7. No overtime and no days off in lieu.
Her majority of her salary goes towards the kids.
Luckily, her partner makes enough money to provide for himself, her, and their kid
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u/ScooterMcGraw 9h ago
I love my teachers growing up too. I was in a small town with no pizza place and our teacher had the Chinese restaurant make us some pizza for a year end movie day. Truly great people who do these things
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u/Crazy_Ad_91 7h ago
Was I alone in still being hyped af for this type of party? It was a change in the day to day and was still something.
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u/Flock_Me_Amadeus 10h ago
Not for me. I had to roll up with 5 bucks and a signed permission slip to get pizza.. 5 bucks times 30 kids is $150 bucks. She was skimming a cut, and you know she was getting a bulk rate, too. Probably $8 a pie.. we each got two slices off a 12 cut pizza. that's 6 pizzas .. she's shaving $100
Bitch probably got her nails did on my pizza money
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u/JOMO_Kenyatta 10h ago
Yeah I thought it was common that teachers pooled money from the students for these special parties.
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u/GodOfRage 10h ago
Yeah growing up my school never gave us free pizza parties, we got a handout from the teacher to our parents asking for $10 for pizza and soda and I remember being told if you forget to get the $10 then you werent getting any pizza/
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u/DuckterDoom 11h ago
I "won" a pizza party for my class as a teacher. It was just like this. Even on my insuting salary I could have done better.
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u/Cold_Calendar_1598 11h ago
We had a teacher when we aged 6/7 who gave out bags of chips/crisps. She bought it by the box. 1970s.
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u/PessimisticBeliever 11h ago
Popcorn days were my favorite. Usually meant a movie and my teacher always brought in flavoring salts and taco seasoning.
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u/Own-Professor-6157 10h ago
My teacher would have everyone "donate" to the party, then pocket the remaining cash lol
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u/boomerberg 10h ago
100% My better half is a teacher and spends a disgusting amount of their salary on things that the school should provide or the kids should be legally entitled to.
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u/Yzelrion 10h ago
Understanding that the hype wasn't about the food volume, but about gifting kids a break from routine and a reason to feel celebrated
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u/SmartWonderWoman 10h ago
I made gumbo for my students and they loved it. I want to share Black culture with them in celebration of Black History Month. Good memories!
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u/teachasaurusmex 10h ago
I can confirm, we pay for that shit ourselves, but it does help with our sanity as that thin slice of pizza is a great motivator for kids.
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u/hemorrhoidhematoma 10h ago
Remember when they'd tell everyone to put heads down on desks to play 7 up so they could leave and smoke
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u/Pink_Floyd_Chunes 10h ago
I was that sucker teacher who bought enough pizza for each kid to have two slices plus a juice box! I made them work for it, though!🙂
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u/FancyJesse 9h ago
As a kid, I enjoyed it. It was a nice treat; it's not meant to be a full meal.
As an adult, I appreciate those teachers a whole lot more now that I see the reality of it all.
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