I definitely agree with you overall (you can see my response to Marley here), but I would like to add that teachers who “simply do their jobs” are already saints — at least here in the US. These people often get paid little more than minimum wage by the time you add in their overtime, they buy school supplies for a lot of the kids, and they frequently work one or two other jobs to make ends meet. Meantime, they have to deal with increased testing, paperwork, administration and class sizes, political bashing, and unappreciative parents who have turned over the actual parenting to them. Then there’s the remnants of No Child Left Behind here, which means that they have kids with every kind of issue to deal with while they’re trying to teach. And some, like my husband, have chosen to work in the toughest schools around, where guns and knives show up on a regular basis, simply because they thought they could have the most impact there.
So, yeah. As a general rule, people should not be rewarded simply for showing up. Teachers are an exception and, sad to say, whatever kind words they hear at these crazy award shows are often the only reward they get.
