School Supply Requirements

[Sundaydrive00]

Originally Posted by ss20ts

Many kids don't go through 10-12 or more pencils in a school year. We didn't have these crazy lists when I was a kid. You brought a handful of basics and many items were supplied by the school. My goodness I used 1 pencil throughout kindergarten - YES 1! It was a huge fat pencil - like the old Crayola 8 box. I never went through a dozen pencils in a single year elementary school.

You obviously didn't do a lot of writing in kindergarten. I teach 4th grade. There is no way that any of those kids could go an entire school year with just one pencil. They write a lot every day. Plus pencils get misplaced, they fall out of their desks and get swept up by the janitor, they let others borrow their pencils, etc...

I would rather my students have too many pencils (that they can take home at the end of the year) then for them to not have anything to write with towards the end of the school year.

[MillennialUrbanist]

Originally Posted by tnff

Our schools don't do supply drives though places like walmart will have "buy a bag" donations set up. Instead we get the long lists and all supplies go into the community cabinet. That's why they specify things like brand and color of pencils so student won't know Johnny is using their pencil/folder/etc.

Short response:

Long response: If we're going to cater to everyone being the same and feeling the same, then teachers might as well include a Soviet Union flag in their usual "requested" items. There's absolutely nothing wrong with each kid bringing in the supply brand he/she can afford, and just using it individually. Pink Floyd was spot-on when they included the meat grinder scene in their "Brick in the Wall" music video.

[ss20ts]

Originally Posted by Sundaydrive00

You obviously didn't do a lot of writing in kindergarten. I teach 4th grade. There is no way that any of those kids could go an entire school year with just one pencil. They write a lot every day. Plus pencils get misplaced, they fall out of their desks and get swept up by the janitor, they let others borrow their pencils, etc...

I would rather my students have too many pencils (that they can take home at the end of the year) then for them to not have anything to write with towards the end of the school year.

Actually, I DID do a LOT of writing in kindergarten. During the open house, my story was the only one that was 2 pages long. My mother STILL talks about this well over 30 years later!

We weren't allowed to bring our kindergarten supplies home with us. We didn't get homework. Kindergarten was half day. Like I said, things were a bit different back then.

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by MillennialUrbanist

Short response:

Long response: If we're going to cater to everyone being the same and feeling the same, then teachers might as well include a Soviet Union flag in their usual "requested" items. There's absolutely nothing wrong with each kid bringing in the supply brand he/she can afford, and just using it individually. Pink Floyd was spot-on when they included the meat grinder scene in their "Brick in the Wall" music video.

Thanks?