At UHS during Thanksgiving, staff members reflect on the culture of gratitude, how students take the time to thank them and where gratitude falls short in the school’s environment. As a result, many teachers recognize the students who take the time to acknowledge them and their hard work daily.
“There are a handful of students who are really appreciative and make it a point to say thank you as they’re leaving class every day or write notes or cards,” freshman English teacher Kai McCann said.
Staff members emphasized that some students highly value their work as teachers in the schooling environment.
“[I have] some students that recognize the importance of education and appreciate [me] as a teacher who cares about their students, and I get a number of students that say thank you when they leave every day,” Biology and Chemistry teacher Joseph Huber said.
Principal Michael Georgino also noticed the efforts students put into showing their gratitude.
“If I go to an arts event, a sports event or an ASB event, I have kids coming up to me thanking me for being there,” Georgino said. “It always kind of surprises me, because I’m there because I want to be there.”
McCann explained that students’ thankfulness helps motivate teachers to do their work.
“Your teachers spend all day thinking about their students,” McCann said. “So any time a student takes the time out of their day. . . to say thank you, it really helps make this job easier.”
Student gratitude has also impacted many teachers on a personal level.
“[At a time] when my daughter was sick, I had a number of students that brought gift cards to me,” Huber said. “Just the fact that those students . . . cared enough about me to genuinely care about my daughter, it was nice to have that kind of support.”
Creating an environment of support is a core value for UHS, and many teachers view it as an essential aspect as well.
“Gratitude is the foundation of building a community,” McCann said. “When you are appreciative of what is around you, you become more willing to serve your community.”
In turn, many students view thankfulness as a way to return the assistance and care they receive from their teachers.
“Just a trait that’s going to make us a little bit more tight-knit and more of a community is being thankful for one another,” sophomore Vice President Ethan Shapiro said.
However, staff members are noticing that student gratitude has been slowly decreasing recently.
“I do think that in the last couple of years, gratitude has gone down,” McCann said. “Teaching used to be regarded as something people felt a lot of gratitude for . . . and now I think that that kind of culture has changed.”
Though there isn’t a definite reason, staff members have also pointed out changes that have contributed to the reduced levels of thankfulness.
“Social media always plays into it; people have a particular view on what kind of teacher they want or what they expect,” McCann said. “With gradebooks being online . . . it puts a lot more demand on your teachers [because] they have a lot more eyes on them.”
Other staff members have noted the difficulty of intentionally being grateful to teachers in students’ busy lives.
“Gratitude is something that really needs to be woven into your everyday life, and it’s hard for us,” Assistant Principal Matthew Pate said. “It’s got [to be] be very conscientious.”
Although Thanksgiving is a holiday that especially emphasizes gratefulness, maintaining an appreciative attitude throughout the year remains important.
“I think that that’s kind of the point of the holiday, is like a reminder [to be appreciative],” McCann said. “It would also just be nice if that reminder was consistent, [even though] I understand why it’s so concentrated [during this time].”
Although teachers have noticed less gratitude in the educational environment, they still see and appreciate students’ kindness when they take the time to recognize their teachers’ efforts.
“We try to show our students that we are so appreciative of them for just being in our classrooms,” McCann said. “When the students return that, they really feed into what I think is a strong community and what we want to be as a school.“
This holiday season, students should recognize the hard work teachers put into the UHS learning environment and show their appreciation, even in the smallest ways.
