Gifts for Teachers

To Give or Not to Give...That is the Question

Is a teacher gift a bribe?

With the holiday season approaching, there is the highly debated question of whether or not it is appropriate to purchase and give a gift to your teacher. This goes beyond just being nice and courteous to some extent because purchasing a teacher’s gift can be seen as a persuasive action. Teachers are responsible for giving out grades and also in some cases writing college recommendations for students. If one student gives a larger gift than another student, or not every student gives the teacher a gift, is this biasing the teacher in some way? In my ethics class we covered a similar topic with corporations giving gifts to purchasers to perhaps bias them in some way to buy from their corporation. Essentially what was determined was if a reasonable gift was given (not money or any absurdly superfluous gift) it was understandable and would not be expected to alter the purchaser’s decision. Similarly, I think with teacher’s gifts, if you are giving them a small token of thanks for the work they put in over the school year, or for writing a recommendation for you, it is acceptable. What do you all think? Is it reasonable to give a teacher a gift or do you think that it is unnecessary or in some ways immoral?