Dear Abby: I am a teacher. I love my job, and I love my students. However, as I near the end of my 26th year of teaching, there’s something I need to get off my chest. At the end of every school year, many parents ask me to write a personal note to their student as an inscription in a certain children’s book. They request this of all of their kids’ teachers, then give the book as a graduation gift. It’s a cute idea, but what it amounts to is a large stack of paperwork at a time of the school year when I’m already drowning in paperwork.

I’m writing this to say publicly: Please stop! Parents, I love your kids, and I did my best to teach them and make sure they had a wonderful year. I tried to instill in them a passion for learning and a love of reading. I also helped them to navigate tricky

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