I’m a big fan of the website Reddit. This article however is about Reddit Gift exchanges, or more specifically, their Teachers 2014 gift exchange which is awesome. Basically the deal is, a lot of teachers have to fork out their own money to buy supplies for their classes. Especially low-income school. This gift exchange isn’t so much as an exchange but instead just a way to help out teachers around the world get some much needed supplies to their school!
That’s basically it. Honestly. Reddit makes no money from it (although they do have a market place you can buy things from!) and instead it really is just internet people helping each other. Isn’t that nice? As the popular saying goes “faith in humanity restored.” Last year there were around 2500 participants and this year around 10,000 teachers have signed up. Those a huge numbers, but completely believable!
I have been in a lot of schools, my dad’s job meant we were moving around all the time so I got to see my fair share of schools. Some of them were really well budgeted, had everything, but others were in dire situations. The fact of the matter is non-private schools depend on government budget (our taxes) as well as donations for their supplies. They’re meant to get enough to enable them to do their job, but that is actually a rather vague definition.
When you have a low budget then things go on essentials. Desks, textbooks ect. It means there’s lots of gaps for the arts, music and P.E – I’m sure not everyone is into drawing, or playing an instrument or joining a football team, but it would be nice to have the option right?
I was given my teacher today, that is, who I’ll be sending a gift for. They are about to teach their first year of elementary grade students. They have asked for some books for the classroom library which is sadly lacking. For me, I remember spending huge amounts of my time in the library. I found it very hard to make friends and I loved (still love reading) so for me I think it’s really special that I can help with that!
So that’s kind of my news for today. In my head, it’s my good deed, but i’m not doing it for that, I’m doing it because I really do want to help out. I think teachers have a really important role, and how good our school experience is determines are lot on how we grow up.
So let’s show some love guys. You don’t have to do anything special like sign up for it or anything, but next time your local school holds a fundraising event or bunsale or something, then make sure to check it out!!