Let me preface this by saying I know a lot of teachers and this post is in no way meant to disparage or criticize them. I don’t feel like they really have any say in this process, especially where we live. I was told this by a former teacher of Raley’s when I was trying to apologize for not finding one of the items on the list. She said she hadn’t even seen the list yet and when I showed it to her she laughed at some of the things that were on there. She was also the first one of his teachers to send home unused supplies at the end of the year.
Our school district is split into 6 different schools from Pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade. Raley will be in the “intermediate” school this year (5th & 6th grades) and Clay will be in the “primary school (1st & 2nd grades). The school supply list came home on the last day of school in May. We gathered up all the supplies that the boys brought home from last year and sorted out which could be recycled to this year, then we marked those items off the new lists and we still had a LOT of things to buy.
Both of the boys lists have specific brands listed and a plea to buy those particular brands (Crayola, for instance). I always have followed this request but usually see other brands in the classroom on “Meet the Teacher” night. This wasn’t too big a deal for me until Raley was in 2nd grade. When we arrived that evening, the teacher had bins set up around the room for the students to put their supplies in. After Raley had finished, it hit me; we had been told NOT to put their names on anything. Sure enough, when Raley brought home a folder the next week, it was not the plastic folder I had bought, but a cheaper paper folder. It ripped almost immediately. Since then, I have labeled everything whether the instructions say to or not. This year we have a lot of recycled things from previous times and they are already named. I don’t think the teachers will have a problem with this though. Everyone is feeling a money crunch this year.
On our local news the other night they ran a feature about this issue. There was a woman who showed her son’s supply list. He goes to school in another district nearby. One of the items on his list was 9 dozen #2 pencils……9!!! That’s 108 pencils. There are 187 days of school this year. That’s more than one pencil per student for every two days of school. Really? What are they expecting the kids to do with these pencils? Clay’s list asks for 2 dozen and Raley’s asks for 3. Having subbed at their schools I know that the kids are always losing their stuff or “forgetting” it but really I think 108 pencils is a little overboard.
A local grocery store here has pre-packaged set of supplies for different grade levels available for $48. When I glanced at them I couldn’t help but notice Rose Art brand instead of Crayola and generics of some of the other items as well. I totaled up what I have spent on the boys’ lists and it is about $50 combined. If I had bought these sets I would have spent twice that much and not gotten the brands asked for. Thanks but no thanks.
“Meet the Teacher” is next week and we will bring all the supplies in and if necessary I will explain why I wrote on them all but I really think our teachers here know the score. It’s one of the reasons I am so happy with where we live; our local schools are wonderful and the teachers are the best.
Sunday Sweets: Flowery Praise
2 days ago
I was a teacher for a long time. I don't know how things are now, but when kids didn't bring in supplies I had to go out within a week and purchase them for them. On my dime. I found very quickly that the poor kids ALWAYS had their supplies, it was the well off kids who didn't bring them in. I guess their parents thought they were bucking the system. Ever since, school supply time is a sore subject for me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I taught every kid used their own supplies. I figure they are pooling them because of the 4-5 kids who don't bring any in, but I don't believe in that. If my kid brings in the fancy notebook by golly he better use that fancy notebook, not the kid next to him whose parent couldn't be bothered to go out and buy it.
My mom was telling me this morning about the 9 dozen pencils. She must get the same channels as you. That is excessive, but after watching child after child sharpen all his pencils down to a nub on the first day, I can see why they want them. I figure it was a young grade?
I know in my classrooms we go through pencils like crazy! I don't let the kids sharpen their own (I've taught k-2) because they take too long and go crazy wasting pencils and they brake the pencil sharpener, so I have a pencil system where I collect all the pencils and sharpen them for them and when they break they just place them in the broken basket and get a new one. I only do this with the regular pencils, if the student has a special pencil I let them keep it. I think I also collected the journals, but they all were the same. I usually buy all my students homework and conduct folders because I want them to all be the same color and make sure everyone has one.
ReplyDeleteWhere we live, supplies aren't even an issue until they become personal. (My JK daughter did not have to buy anything in terms of pencils, crayons, etc. She will not have to buy any until second grade - I think - and even then they don't go so far as to tell us brands, although I think they recommend or strongly discourage certain ones.)
ReplyDeleteYour way sounds crazy.
Then again, if you saw my taxes, you'd think my way sounded crazy, I'm sure.