THE decision of some parents to collect nearly 40,000 yuan (US$5,882) from graduating middle school students in the same class to express gratitude for their teachers perplexed a student.

According to the student, surnamed Li, a message on the WeChat group of his class suggested that students and their parents treat their teachers to a fine dinner to express their gratitude. The budget required each student to pay 1,200 yuan. The collected money would be used to pay for the dinner and gifts for the teachers, banners with words of gratitude as well as the fees to decorate the dining area in an upscale restaurant.

Li said that parents of a few students in his class were organizing the dinner. A few days after the message was sent out, 35 out of the total 43 students had paid the money. However, Li did not pay because he thought it was too costly to organize such a “gratitude dinner.”

Li said the teachers who were going to be invited to the dinner were actually in the WeChat group and were aware of the dinner party. However, the teachers said they knew nothing about the party and the school insisted that they were not aware.

One of the parents said that she could not understand why some students would refuse to pay the money to thank their teachers. “Our original thought was to have a happy ending for our children and the teachers who spent three years together,” said the parent. (Zhang Qian)