Teacher Appreciation Week

As many parents in the United States (at least those with school going kids) are aware, May 5 to May 9 is teacher appreciation week.

Sure enough the grocery store had "Teacher Appreciation Gifts" including single roses and the like.

There appears to be elaborate planning involved by room moms in classrooms across the country in planning the week's festivities. Our kids were requested to bring flowers one day, a sweet snack another day and a salty snack the third. The PTA contributed some goodies the fourth day and the children were expected to contribute a book the final day.

In all, the festivities left me a little under whelmed. Call me a cynic but when did school become a series of gift exchanges? God know that teachers deserve all the appreciation that they can get. But when does it go from being heartfelt to a mechanical marking of the occasion?