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I just saw a TV commercial starring Jordan Sparks from Am. Idol asking for school supply donations. I suppose it was for a national school supply drive or something. Well, I don't have kids so you'll have to forgive me but when did school shopping become a national crisis? Just what exactly is going on in today's schools? I will say, however, that I worked at a school for a few years (as a counselor) but I was not directly involved with classroom functions so I have no idea why this has suddenly become a crisis. It seems like every neighborhood (rich and poor) are having donation drives for backpacks and other necessities. I must be missing something because I remember as a kid, I could easily buy all my supplies in one shopping trip- everything fit in one backpack and I was good for the rest of the year! LOL. We weren't asked to bring rolls of toilet paper, reams of computer paper, cans of lysol or goodness knows what else these kids are being asked to buy today. What has changed? I have my suspicions but I'm curious to know what everyone else thinks...
Some children can't afford these basic things for different reasons and the supply drives are probably for the kids who would come to school without any of the things they need. Not too long ago when i was in school teachers had to limit the amount of copies they gave out or they had to pay for them themselves which to me is CRAZY. Education seems to keep becoming less and less important in our country and it is so sad.
My son's list of supplies is quite long and to me excessive. I questioned this of my son's school district. They have school based management and choose to use much of their budget to keep class sizes down (although I teach in another County without school based management of the budget and our class sizes are about the same). The reply from the area superintendent basically said that the community has always supported the requests of the school, which enabled them to spend money on other things, such as staff. I won't send in reams of paper or soap that they ask for. I will send scissors, glue, crayons etc. for my own child. They ask for 12 glue sticks so that they can distribute them to art, music, etc. I send him with two and tell the teacher, "When he needs more I'll send them".
Last edited by tgbwc; 08-13-2008 at 08:27 PM..
Reason: detail
We did our back to school shopping last weekend. We have 3 kids, 2 in middle school, one in high school. It cost almost $200 for everything they needed. Granted, DD got some more expensive notebooks and what not, she's 13, she wanted things with pictures on them . We could have cut that cost down by $20 or so I guess. Our lists aren't outrageous, mostly paper, pencils, notebooks, etc. We don't have to bring in any cleaning supplies, computer paper, etc., just kleenex. Take someone making minimum wage and that is their grocery bill for the month so they choose between eating and getting school supplies. There are schools were pretty much NONE of the kids can afford their supplies and in the past they were provided by the schools. With budgets being so tight these days, they just can't afford to do that any longer.
We live in a pretty well off area and there are still families that can't afford school supplies. Most of the stores have drop boxes and the schools themselves have boxes in the office to collect supplies. It is a sad state when we can't get our kids pencils so they can learn in school but kids don't vote.
I think this year is particularly hard on districts, where transportation costs are sky rocketing due to fuel. It obviously hits parents hard too. I know that there are schools in our area that are soliciting donors for the kids back to school supplies. I don't think that educators should have to pay out of pocket for any supplies. I do think that there should be a means of funding these supplies through the educational system, perhaps cutting some adminstrative costs, and putting the real dollars in the classroom to benefit our children.
Bingo , you just hit the nail on the head. Administrative cost! #@&! BS!
The huge majority of students in our very large school system are poor. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced lunches and every year the local churches have drives to help supply school supplies, shoes, and uniforms to these kids.
Yet this is the same school system where most of the school board members didn't give a second thought to buying 12 new chairs for the school board at a cost of 6k per chair! Where a high level administrative assistant decided that she needed to spend 10k to redecorate her office after suffering some water damage, most of that cost was for a high end cherry wood desk. Yet the schools can't afford copy paper! And our school board goes around crying about how concerned they are for our students. It makes me ill.
I don't know, I guess I have just come to expect a list of required supplies every year. I spent $65 in total for both of my kids who are in elementary and that included new backpacks which they didn't really need but wanted lol.
I think we're just a "stuff" driven society. When I was a kid teachers would never think to ask for certain kinds of notebooks or supplies. But, we Americans just love stuff and it makes it easier for the teachers if everyone has the same supplies. When I was a child, everyone had a couple of three ring binders, pens, papers, and we were good to go. My son's school now strongly recommends a graphing calculator (cost, around $90)for every child in Alg. II or above. Just 4 years ago when my older son was a Junior in HS, they only suggested it to students in Calculus.
What's with the backpacks anyway? Hell, when I went to school we didn't have them, we just carried our books.
How many books did you have? I'm just curious, because I know that in both gradeschool and high school it was physically impossible for me to carry all my books without a bag. Even with the bag there were times when I had to carry one or two in my arms.
My mother remembers when I was in first grade I fell backwards down the stairs and couldn't get up because my backpack was too big. I looked like an upside-down turtle, my legs and arms flailing.
Last edited by golfgal; 08-14-2008 at 02:41 PM..
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. We could have cut that cost down by $20 or so I guess. Our lists aren't outrageous, mostly paper, pencils, notebooks, etc. We don't have to bring in any cleaning supplies, computer paper, etc., just kleenex. Take someone making minimum wage and that is their grocery bill for the month so they choose between eating and getting school supplies. There are schools were pretty much NONE of the kids can afford their supplies and in the past they were provided by the schools. With budgets being so tight these days, they just can't afford to do that any longer.
