Wednesday, August 31, 2016

An Apple for the Teacher

Here's a little page I created. It is nothing very complicated, but I had fun cutting out images and  doodling.  And using up a couple of stickers from my stash. 
Here in the US we have a saying about giving the teacher an apple. Is it just an American notion or do people in other countries share this thought?
I was curious about the origins, and I found out it goes back to life on the American frontier back in the 1800's. Teachers hired for some of the rural one room school houses were often housed and supplied with food by families with children in the school.  The apple was given to symbolize appreciation of that teacher. I always thought it just had to do with school starting at the time apples are ripe, but maybe that is also true because these rural families would really appreciate a teacher moving into a  less than desirable area to work. 
Apples were originally grown though to make hard cider for drinking, and people rarely ate apples. Of course Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) worked to change that image and he went through places like Ohio and Pennsylvania planting lots of apple trees.  This was good since apple trees are easy to grow and they do provide a lot of food.
Apples still continue to be associated with teachers, but maybe now they are more for those brown- nosing  students who are trying  get an edge up? I've only gotten apples of couple times in my teaching career. The most memorable was when I was out sick for a couple of days once, and my whole honors class each brought me an apple on the day I returned. It was pretty cool to see all those apples lined up on my desk.
Were they brown-nosing? Maybe!
Anyhow, I am linking up to Try It on Tuesday as the theme right now is children. Nothing says children more than school, and going back to school after the summer breaks. I am also linking up to Art Journal Journey on this last day of Gill's great theme of Nature's Wonders since apples are one of nature's yummy wonders.
Thanks for stopping by!

16 comments:

Valerie-Jael said...

LOvely journal page, and in England it was also a good tradition! A lot of my students who came from farms or bakeries brought me little presents, fruit or veggies or bread, always ice. Thanks for another page for AJJ and have a great day, hugs, Valerie

Valerie-Jael said...

Oh, and thanks for linking to TIOT as well!

froebelsternchen said...

Enjoyable post Erika!
Lovely! They loved you as a teacher for sure that they each of them brought an apple for you!♥♥♥ So nice!
Here there is no connection between apples and teachers - lol.

I love apples and am sorry that my two apple trees don't give much apples this year - it seems it was a miserable apple year - but one of our lovely neighbours gifted me 15 kilos plums.. and so I have frozen all the plums this year instead of my apples..lol.
Not so much work for me as the freezer apple preparations last year.
So I am happy again and we have enough plums for making plumcake and other nice things with the fruits during the wintermonths now!

Your page is great and I have a smile on my face - you will see why tomorrow when you will get known our new theme at AJJ...lol!

Thank you for a wonderful last entry dear Erika!
oxo Susi

froebelsternchen said...

And I forget to mention:
THANK YOU FOR JOINING TIOT Erika!

Gibby Frogett said...

dear Erika if I haven't commented on this would you please let me know on one of my blogs so I can do it again please. I can see you on the AJJ link and when I commented I had to re-sign in blogger but it didn't seem to want to take my message (I think) and now my feed is only showing your water melon post...?? is it me or something odd?? Gill xx

baili said...

wow quite a job nice work i agree that schools are best place for kids to learn and explore

~*~Patty S said...

Your page is lovely and I really like the simplicity and meaning behind it Erika.
Interesting to read about the origins too.
It seems a bit of a shame to me that a kind gesture turned into "brown nosing" somewhere along the way LOL
Great imagery of your line up of welcome back apples.
Someone had a very nice idea there.
oxo

Jeanie said...

I love the colors and cheeriness on your page! Back to school -- yikes!

Thanks for coming by the Gypsy. I'll still be posting but probably late visiting again for another week or so -- headed north to the Land of Limited Internet. I'll get to the library but just in case...

Meanwhile, I love it when you come by. I hope one day you can get your boat down to the Vineyard. You would love it!

chrissie said...

Great idea to do school for pur children theme

Thank you for joining us at Try it on Tuesday

Love Chrissie xx

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

What an incredible twofer. I was quite impressed with both the page and the back story. I knew that the apple came about long before this century, but not why. Thanks for enlightening us.

sirkkis said...

Beautiful and informative page. Really nice on our theme.
Thank you Erika for playing along with us at TioT ♥

Meggymay said...

This is a fantastic page and I am so pleased you joined us at Try it on Tuesdays.
We also say An apple for the teacher here in the UK.
Yvonne xx

Sadie´sGedankenfülle said...

Ein fröhliches Bild, man kann die Freude spüren, mit der du es gemacht hast.
Äpfel mag man immer ;-)
Grüße Sadie

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Now that you know the new theme, I wanted to scream to you to save this, but couldn't of course. It's a great journal page and a mere one day early!

Mrs.B said...

A great journal page Erika, loved reading about your history for the 'apple for the teacher' very interesting. We also say 'an apple for the teacher' think I'll check out the UK origins, might be fun to compare.
Avril x
p.s. Thanks for sharing at TioT

pearshapedcrafting said...

I love this page - yes it is a saying in the UK too! The only food I remember receiving though were chocolates from pupils at Christmas and the end of the school year and Soda Bread from one lovely parent who used to make the most delicious Soda Bread I have ever tasted! When her son left school she sent me in the recipe - but mine never tasted as good as hers! So pleased you joined us at Try It On Tuesday! Chrisx