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I don't know why everyone wants to make this about a pencil for a kid who has nothing. That is not now and never has been the problem with these school lists. The problem is the amount of stuff that simply isn't essential to learning. Most of these lists are nice to haves in quantities that generate waste. It doesn't matter whether an individual kid's parents bought the pencil that's causally tossed aside because they can just pull another out of the supply. It doesn't matter who paid for the glue stick that is dropped and not picked up because they can just get another. There's an endless of supply of free stuff to be used and tossed.
How does this teach an individual child to be responsible and appreciate the value of a pencil, a notebook, or an education, when there is simply no value placed on it or on personal responsibility?
It's a system that perpetuates waste.
There's been much discussion on mandatory computers. Our school district decided every kid deserved a computer so they purchased Chromebooks for everyone to use and turn it at the end of they year. They even accounted for accidents and breakage based on the normal breakage rate of computers that were purchased by regular people. Except what they didn't count on was that in many cases neither the kids, nor their parents felt any special need to take care of the computer because it was no skin off their nose. So careless breakage and loss was way higher than expected because the statistics were based on owners. Owners who took care of their expensive purchases. And to make things worse, there an excessive amount of deliberate breakage. They had to change the policy the next year because they couldn't afford the constant replacement costs.
My 6th grade social studies teacher (a notorious teacher that everybody hated) said that we had to have a Wireless notebook. Neither my parents nor I knew that "wireless" was a specific brand, and we assumed that it referred to a black and white notebook. So, I got in trouble for bringing a black and white notebook rather than a wireless notebook. No, we did not pool supplies. I wonder if this teacher owned stock in whatever company made wireless notebooks.
I don't know why everyone wants to make this about a pencil for a kid who has nothing. That is not now and never has been the problem with these school lists. The problem is the amount of stuff that simply isn't essential to learning. Most of these lists are nice to haves in quantities that generate waste. It doesn't matter whether an individual kid's parents bought the pencil that's causally tossed aside because they can just pull another out of the supply. It doesn't matter who paid for the glue stick that is dropped and not picked up because they can just get another. There's an endless of supply of free stuff to be used and tossed.
This exactly! The more supplies get brought in, the more it enables carelessness and wastefulness. When kids see just how much is dumped into the communal pile, they get into the habit of believing the pile is unlimited. When it's not! So they get careless and wasteful with supplies. Because they "know" they can always get more from "the pile".
My grandson will be in the 2nd grade this year so things might be different but in the past this is how things worked, and I personally have no issue with it. Parents are asked to buy 3 glue sticks and a pack of 18 sharpened pencils. The teacher pools those supplies and hands them out as needed, i.e the kids don't keep 18 pencils or two glue sticks in their pencil box. The only thing on the list that surprised me this year was the "red correcting pen", I can't figure out why a second grade teacher needs 27 correcting pens. I will buy it anyway but it just struck me as odd.
I don't know if this is the answer for the red correcting pens in your grandson's case, but in my experience, some teachers have their students self-correct their "in class work" using a red pen or pencil. I can't tell you how many barely used red pencils I have.
I was required to buy already sharpened pencils one year, for my youngest.
Didn't know that was a thing. Never required for my older two.
I bought un-sharpened DTs, had my kid sharpen them (I have an electric pencil sharpener or 3), & shove them back in the box. 2 packs of 24.
Communal pencils.
There you go.
Didn't save me much cost wise, but come on. Why not just make a little note, on the supply list, that all pencils need to show up with a sharpened point?
It was also pretty cute, when a teacher at the school who I am friends with IRL and on SM, posted on SM that she was raiding the MS and LS supply closets b/c "MS school trip to a 3rd world county and visiting a 3rd world elementary school and they need supplies".
Ok. The MS students traveling to this country (for 10+ years) are already required to bring "gifts" & in the form of "supplies" for this school. Parents are given a list, and told that one can shop at the Dollar Store, nothing needs to be a name brand (but please put all in a gift bag): Pencils, pens of any color, colored pencils, crayons, highlighters (any brand will suffice), paper clips, notebooks of any kind, index cards, rulers, loose leaf paper, stickers, envelopes, tape, sticky pads, staples, staple pullers, un-inflated soccer balls (not in the supply closets) and more.
Which is fine.
But raiding supply closets for tuition paid for leftovers or parent out-of-pocket required leftovers? No.
It was also pretty cute, when a teacher at the school who I am friends with IRL and on SM, posted on SM that she was raiding the MS and LS supply closets b/c "MS school trip to a 3rd world county and visiting a 3rd world elementary school and they need supplies".
...
But raiding supply closets for tuition paid for leftovers or parent out-of-pocket required leftovers? No.
And that is why I have very little sympathy for schools/teachers who complain about parents not bringing supplies.
So each student brings all their own supplies, at the beginning of the year, and basically, you dole them out as necessary throughout the year?
That's a really interesting concept, and relies on each student bringing their own supplies, and using only their own supplies throughout the year.
What do you do with students who bring zero supplies at the beginning of the year, which others have said is fairly typical?
Do you have many students who arrive with nothing at the beginning of the year?
1. Yes, but I don’t dole out the supplies. The student takes responsibility and gets the supply when needed.
2. Each student uses their own supplies.
3. Typically no students bring zero supplies. If a child is in need there are school resources we can utilize.
THREE BOXES OF TISSUES? That's assuming almost no one else will bring them, there's no way the school needs 3 BOXES of tissues per pupil in the school. Are you kidding? The students each would go through 3 boxes of tissues? Most kids wouldn't use more than maybe, 2 tissues.
What are the paper towels for? Are you kidding? EACH STUDENT brings 2 rolls of paper towels?
Former teacher here.
Trust me, a classroom goes through a LOT of tissues, paper towels, and sanitizing wipes. Especially during flu/allergy season, or when there's something going around. I really hated those times in my classroom when I had keep a stack of scratchy paper towels from the bathroom to use as kleenex, or have kids missing instructional time to go blow their noses with toilet paper because we had run out of that start-of-year kleenex.
I don't know why everyone wants to make this about a pencil for a kid who has nothing. That is not now and never has been the problem with these school lists. The problem is the amount of stuff that simply isn't essential to learning. Most of these lists are nice to haves in quantities that generate waste. It doesn't matter whether an individual kid's parents bought the pencil that's causally tossed aside because they can just pull another out of the supply. It doesn't matter who paid for the glue stick that is dropped and not picked up because they can just get another. There's an endless of supply of free stuff to be used and tossed.
How does this teach an individual child to be responsible and appreciate the value of a pencil, a notebook, or an education, when there is simply no value placed on it or on personal responsibility?
It's a system that perpetuates waste.
There's been much discussion on mandatory computers. Our school district decided every kid deserved a computer so they purchased Chromebooks for everyone to use and turn it at the end of they year. They even accounted for accidents and breakage based on the normal breakage rate of computers that were purchased by regular people. Except what they didn't count on was that in many cases neither the kids, nor their parents felt any special need to take care of the computer because it was no skin off their nose. So careless breakage and loss was way higher than expected because the statistics were based on owners. Owners who took care of their expensive purchases. And to make things worse, there an excessive amount of deliberate breakage. They had to change the policy the next year because they couldn't afford the constant replacement costs.
And that is the current consumer mindset today.
So the schools may be inadvertently conditioning the kids.
You take much better care of things when it's your money that bought it.
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