Mrs. Amy Cunningham has been teaching in Southeast Georgia for better than twenty-five years. She takes great pride in holding students to high moral, as well as academic standards. When not in the classroom, she enjoys working counted cross-stitch, romping with her "furry children," Jasper and Zoey, and cooking for her forester husband, Scott. I have been a close acquaintance with Amy for multiple years, and I can say whole-heartedly that she puts all of herself into her work without expecting a reward. This goes to say, "What ever happened to Thank You?"

I remember a conversation I once had with Amy; she said to me, " Recently, while I was sick with walking pneumonia, I took the time to hand stitch a little something for each individual student in my smallest class. Out of thirteen students, only two bothered to say 'thank you'." In my opinion, the phrase "Thank You" has lost its meaning. The phrase is defnied as, "A polite expression used when acknowledging a gift, service, or compliment, or accepting or refusing an offer." In today's time, we throw the phrase around similar to how we throw the word love around. Amy goes ont to say, "This has become a common place, adults and kids alike seem to have developed some level of entitlement. Even if the students did not 'like' what I had stitched, a level of appreciation for my time, effort, and even money expaned,should have been noted."

I had always been told to be kind and respectful even if what you receive is not necessarily what you wanted. That is when she said it, "Realizing that there is such a lack of appreciation is the first step in teaching it. With what little beath I had in me that day, i shared with my students that they should ALWAYS be ready with an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE. Not only will a greatful, it could also be the birth of the 'Pay-It-Foward' that will in turn have a butterfy effect.