There are several occasions throughout the school year in which teachers can expect to receive some gifts from their students, their students’ families, and their schools’ administrations.
Teacher Appreciation Week falls on the first full week of May. During this time, teachers may be provided many mugs informing everyone that they are “the greatest teacher in the world,” endless gift cards to coffee shops and maybe even some school supplies or snacks.
Beyond parents gifting items to their children’s teachers, some community organizations also provide gift bags to their local schools.
One thing a teacher might not expect to be in a gift bag provided by a local church: an offer for discounted cremation services.
One teacher says they received a voucher for 10% of cremation services in their gift bag from a local church celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week. In the video posted to TikTok by user Erin (@nalgenefan), they give an item-by-item breakdown of what was included in the bag, culminating in the voucher.
“I’m a public school teacher, I make $43,000 a year before taxes, and this is everything I got in my Teacher Appreciation Week gift bag,” they say in the video.
Erin then begins to list off the gift bag items.
“A water bottle from the church that gave us the gift bags; a [stress] ball that says smart, strong and fearless; a little notebook that says teachers plant seeds that grow forever, and it’s a little damp because my air conditioner is broken, so it’s really humid in my room,” they say. “And my personal favorite, Weaver and Peaks Memorial Funeral Care hand sanitizer and a business card advertising 10% off cremation services. Happy teacher appreciation week to me.”
The TikToker, who has over 14,500 followers on the platform, added a disclaimer to their video that they are grateful for what they received in the gift bag, but found its contents to paint an accurate picture of the reality of being an underfunded teacher.
Erin ultimately declined to comment regarding the video.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the funeral home via email regarding the video.
The gifts received by the poster for Teacher Appreciation Week are similar to many received by others who commented on the video. Simply put, the schools they work for do not have additional funds to pay for appreciation gifts. Schools across the country struggle with funding, typically received as a combination of local, state and federal funding through tax collections. This has led many teachers to self-fund school supplies and basic necessities in their classrooms.
@nalgenefan Comment ur favorite item 🤪 #fyp #teachersoftiktok #teacherapprecationweek ♬ original sound – erin
Some viewers were shocked at the inclusion of a cremation coupon in a gift bag intended to express gratitude to teachers.
“THE CREMATION COUPON?? Oh my god,” one commenter wrote.
“The cremation discount card has me WEAK,” another said.
“The funeral stuff made me lose it,” a third added.
Others shared the lackluster gifts they had been provided by their school districts, although many commented that parents had come through with some improved offerings.
“My former school gave us a Jeans Friday coupon, but we had jeans Friday every Friday,” one user said.
“At my last school they raffled off a will,” another added.. “Like a lawyer would write your will.”
“I got fruit salad on Monday, and then on Tuesday we got smoothies, which was all of the leftover fruit salad blended up,” a further commenter wrote.
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