Another kid, this one at a school in California, gave him wild boar bones. Others awarded him ties and thank-you notes and stacks of Christmas cards I would read in his elementary school office while waiting for a ride home.
Dad has long since retired and my daughter is now old enough to have teachers of her own. That presented a Christmas-time quandary this week. Do we buy the teachers gifts, like dad's students bought him?
We have no skulls to give. Are cards OK? What's expected of modern parents?
Certainly somebody is buying presents for teachers. Anchorage School District employees reported receiving more than $16,000 this year in gift cards and door prizes, donated travel and money for school supplies, according to disclosure forms submitted to city.
I talked with Anchorage parents and teachers looking for suggestions. While surely some teachers welcome gift cards as they finish their own holiday shopping, those I talked with said receiving presents can generate awkward moments, and stressed that they aren't expected.
What they will remember years from now, they said, are handwritten thank-you notes and unexpected, personal messages from students.
Sometimes kids write first- and second-grade Chugach Optional Elementary School teacher Kathryn Friend a poem, or draw her a picture or make her a homemade book, she said. "I keep these. I treasure these things."
"I go back and now and again and read them over, smile, remember, and just think of the students that they came from."
Today is the last day of school for students before Christmas break in Anchorage (Friday is an in-service day for teachers in Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula; students attend in Mat-Su).
Here are a few last-minute tips for parents debating teacher gifts:
THE GIFT OF PAPERWORK
Gifts worth more than $50 must be declared to City Hall under city ethics rules, which makes your donation a matter of public record.
Among the gifts reported this year: A $100 gift certificate for a massage -- thanking a district employee for attending a band trip; a $239 REI gift certificate for a teacher's wedding present and a $100 cash gift from a grandparent, according to the disclosures.
Although many teachers disclose $50 gift cards, that's not required under city rules, said Eric Tollefsen, executive director of human resources for the district.
Teachers may not accept gifts that are meant to influence a student's grades, Tollefsen said, with all disclosures reviewed by the city ethics board.
NO REALLY, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE
What the reports don't show is the countless small, handmade gifts and cards arriving on desktops across the city this week. Parents and teachers said there's no need to spend money on these homegrown thank-yous.
"(Gifts from students) can be uncomfortable, I guess. Because they're our clients," said Debra LaRue, a government and politics teacher for 21 years at Chugiak High School. "But the notes of appreciation, those are by far the most cherished thing a student or parent can give."
The Goldenview Middle School PTSA sent a note to parents earlier this month encouraging people to send teachers, librarians and other school employees cards, emails and letters rather than traditional gifts.
"I think it means a little bit more," said Sandra Big Shield, a parent of three who is helping her kids arrange Christmas tins, with plastic flowers from Michael's, for teachers at Abbott Loop Elementary.
SO MANY MUGS
"A nice way to thank teachers is to offer to help with a special project in class," said Friend, the Chugach Optional teacher.
Also appreciated: Supplies for the classroom. A game. A new book. Cool pencils.
"It's best to maybe buy something that could be shared with all the students," she said.
Kelsea Vandergriff splits the difference. When the mother of two makes gift baskets for her sons' teachers, some of the goodies are for the instructor, such as wool socks or a handmade ornament. And some are for the classroom, including flash drives or blank CDs that can be used to save copies of student projects.
"If you have 25 kids in your classroom, you don't need 25 mugs," Vandergriff said.
Other parents said they're tailoring their gift cards to individual teachers, getting movie tickets for the teacher with a big family or a gift certificate to a quilting shop for an instructor who likes crafting.
After talking to all these parents and teachers, I felt a little unimaginative about what we got our daughter's teachers: Book store gift cards. Good for a few paperbacks or mochas.
Who couldn't use a free coffee? But my gift probably won't mean anything years from now.
Leslie Dolan Gustafson retired from teaching high school students in North Pole about 15 years ago.
All these years later, she said, "the gifts don't stand out at all."
Instead she remembers the personalized notes from students navigating high school careers brimming with drama. A funny story from class or a thank-you for listening to some teenage crisis, written on cards that Gustafson tucked in yearbooks throughout her career.
"I don't have those coffee mugs. I don't have Fred Meyer gift cards," Gustafson said. "But I have really cool messages they wrote me."
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