Teachers Explain Back-To-School Lists

[pstokely]

Some Parents Question Purchasing Certain Items

http://www.kmbc.com/education/24675497/detail.html

[knitter4democracy]

1. I've run into this as a teacher.

So many parents just don't understand that their taxes don't pay for everything.

[Wednesdays]

3. It used to.

When I went to public school, my family never had to buy "school supplies," aside from a few individualized items such as my personal binder.

Paper, pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, and countless other items...were all provided by the district.

[knitter4democracy]

4. It depends on your state, but the reality is, most of the time, teachers buy them.

We always have. In my state, we're required by law to provide writing utensils and paper, but that doesn't mean that we provide everything. Some districts can and do, and many just can't.

Now, in the private schools, forget it. Unless the teacher buys it all out of pocket (and isn't reimbursed for it, mind you--I bought most of a class set of books last spring and never got a dime back on those), it's not there.

[Art_from_Ark]

31. At my elementary school, parents had to supply just about everything

Paper, pencils, pens, rulers, scissors (blunt type). The school (or the teacher?) supplied "construction paper" (on those rare occasions when we used it), and by the time I started elementary school (1964), textbooks were finally free (furnished by the state), but they were usually hand-me-downs that had to be used for at least 3 years.

[seabeyond]

21. yes, but a lot of the things required are stuff college kids use, or professional

that are not called for or needed in early years. the kids just arent advanced enough. and a lot of things are extra fun things, not things that a school has to have but want.

[knitter4democracy]

22. I've never, ever seen anything go to waste in a classroom.

I'm betting that they actually are using those supposedly higher-level materials. You'd be amazed at what we teach at what level these days.

[seabeyond]

23. i understand. i am in full support. always call bullshit on our kids arent learning

they are so beyond than our day so much earlier than in the past.

but i think they get supplies that they dont need, just cool to have.

i think the students could do with less. i have so many note books partially used only for the next year to require three per class.

[LWolf]

2. My list is divided into 2 sections:

Personal supplies, and community supplies. The personal supply list is short. The community supply list is longer. Those who donate community supplies use them. Those that don't provide their own. Or our fan advocate provides for them.

Those who donate supply about half of what we use in the classroom for the year. I supply the rest, with my small classroom supply budget and my own funds. I spend more out of my own personal funds than any one family does. I spend more of my own funds than my entire supply budget from the district.

[snooper2]

5. all the kids need are

rubber bands- 250 count bag
3 boxes of #2 pencils
1 box of paperclips
and some of these old school erasers..


:evilgrin:

[LWolf]

25. Don't you dare pass that list to my students.

[knitter4democracy]

30. I'm fine with the other stuff, but I hate those erasers.

Seriously, massively hate them.

[onpatrol98]

6. My yearly rant...

I wonder how some parents with multiple kids in school afford to get all the supplies.

My personal pet peeves...

1) When they specify the brand of crayons, permanent markers, etc. that you should buy? (ie...sharpie only, they never specify the cheaper brand OF ANYTHING.)

3) You send 30 pencils to school, but your child can't get ONE back, if he needs one.

4) Half the things you send...are never seen again by your children.

5) Sending toilet paper...I mean come on.

6) Sending sanitary napkins... no kidding (that was on my friend's list)

7) Two cans of Lysol. Can you imagine 15 kids bringing in 2 cans of Lysol, each? This was just one class. If every class brings in 2 cans of Lysol...I mean what are they doing in there. Didn't schools used to purchase items like this?

8) After spending $100 - $200 dollars on school supplies, you spend the remaining part of the school year...wait for it...fund raising...to buy (you guessed it) supplies. (???) We don't know what supplies.

I only have one in high school right now, and the school supply lists have gotten a bit better for him. So, I don't rant nearly as much. My son in elementary school...his lists are still long and expensive.

At the moment, I can still afford to acquire these things. But, I have to wonder if it occurs to some teachers that many of their students' parents are now unemployed. In elementary school, what child wants to be the one that can't come in with the huge supply stash.

What parent wants to have that conversation with a child?

I realize some teachers are more conscientious than others about these supply lists. But, some are ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS.

When did paper and pencil and the occasional workbook stop being enough?

[pstokely]

8. You spend more $ on extra curricular activites than supplies in high school

nt

[onpatrol98]

18. You don't know me

Frankly, you don't have any idea of what I spend... on anything. Except the approximate amount of what I just told you on supplies. LOL.

You're not sitting across the dinner table from me and my family when we make decisions about our money. Faithfully, each year, I fulfill the list. I recognize, however, its a burden on some families. I've been told by friends, that its a burden.

[Dappleganger]

29. I think you misunderstood what that poster was saying.

I took it to mean that while a high schooler may spend less money on a supply list, they usually spend quite a bit more money on their extracurricular activities. It's certainly true in our case (we've had one to just graduate and have another rising senior and two middle schoolers).

[LiberalFighter]

9. That list is crazy.

[pstokely]

10. Places with the lowest taxes probably have the most expense supply lists

nt

[realisticphish]

12. textbooks, computers

keeping the roof from leaking. Those kinds of supplies.

Don't blame teachers. Blame the morons who decide that education should be cut before anything else, or who decided that NCLB was a fantastic idea.

There are school districts where I'm from that couldn't afford chalk. The teachers bought their own.

My mother is a music teacher, and buys recorders for her 4th graders. The kids are technically supposed to pay for them, but many cannot. My mother eats the cost.

Ok, fine, there might be a ridiculous item here or there. But maybe you don't understand the realities of many schools now.

As to pencil, paper, and workbook being enough, it stopped being enough when rich schools afford better. The kids in poor schools are already starting at a disadvantage, usually, coming from a lower SES situation. It only makes it worse when they're using ancient textbooks, obsolete computers, and have no art, music, or gym class because the school laid off all of the "special" teachers.

The world is different now. Paper and pencils just aren't enough. As the world gets more complicated, so does education.

[onpatrol98]

19. My husband teaches in school

He's taught in high school, junior high school, and elementary school.

Because we've had to purchase lists for multiple children...his "list" is nonexistent. Bring pencils, bring notebook paper. And, he's survived. And, his parents have no problems affording their "free and appropriate" education.

[pstokely]

33. Are schools now asking for toner cartridges for the printers or copiers?

They probably will soon if they're asking parents to buy custodial supplies

[RayOfHope]

15. Usually those fundraiser monies are spent on bigger things, like playground equipment

audio visual equipment for assemblies, and things like that. Or at least they are in the schools I've taught in.

[Dulcinea]

24. Two words: dollar store.

That's where I get all my kids' school supplies. That's what I can afford. If it's not the name brand of choice...sorry.

[pstokely]

32. But what if dollar store crayons or pencils aren't good enough for the teacher

nt

[LWolf]

27. When did paper and pencil stop being enough?

When school supply budgets were cut almost to the point of elimination.

When I started teaching, we had open supply cupboards. Our district kept a warehouse full of supplies bought in bulk, for much less than parents get stuff at Walmart, and each school kept supply cupboards full. When we got low, the secretary requested replacements from the warehouse. If we wanted something that wasn't in the cupboard, she ordered it for us.

That was in the 80s, when the Reagan era of anti-school propaganda was just getting started. By the 90s, the budgets were tighter. Our school had a budget, and we were told that when the supply cupboard was empty, that was it for the year. The result? Teachers planned ahead and started hoarding supplies.

By the mid-90s, we each had our own supply budget for the year. We ordered our supplies straight from the district warehouse when we needed them. No more whole-school supply cupboard. We also needed more cupboard space in our classrooms to store all those supplies that we were getting for the year, rather than as needed.

By the turn of the century, supply budgets were being cut. Each year we got less from the district, and spent more of our own funds to make up for it. We ALWAYS spent our own money on supplies; but now, our school supply budgets were shrinking, and our personal supply bills were getting bigger and bigger. That's when we started asking parents to help.

I don't like it. I liked it when I sent out letters telling parents not to send their kids to school with anything but a back pack, a water bottle, a snack, and a binder, because we supplied everything else. That seemed to bother some parents, who actually enjoyed the ritual of picking out new, fancy pencils, etc., but I think it was the right way to do things.

I also don't know how to keep the classroom supplied without help. I know that every teacher, school, and district handles these requests a little differently. I try to be as flexible as I can while still getting what I need. Here is what I do:

My students get a 2-sided list. One side is for personal supplies; it's as small as I can make it. The other is for community supplies, for those that can help support the class.

They bring all those community supplies in the Friday before the first day of school. We have a block of time for "meet the teacher," and they drop it off then. It's usually just a time for parent, teacher, and student to meet face to face, for parent and student to see the room, and for parents to ask general questions and let teachers know of any particular needs that aren't documented in an IEP or 504.

I spend my classroom funds on more classroom supplies. When I run out, I get some supplies from our FAN coordinator. I use my own funds for TEACHER supplies that students don't use, and for any other things we need for the rest of the year. Most of the art supplies come from my personal funds, for example.

On the first day of the week, every student in the room gets a new pencil, and some paper for the week. If they run out, they can ask for more. I have a storage tower with drawers on wheels that contains colored pencils, markers, glue, crayons, rulers, scissors, and tape. They take freely out of that supply tower, and are expected to put the items back when they are done. Sometimes that happens, sometimes not. By the end of the year, the tower supply is sparse, and I fill it up again at the beginning of the next year.

On my desk, I have a couple of hand-held manual pencil sharpeners. They destroy the cheap pencil sharpeners supplied by the district within the first couple of months of the year, so I keep manual sharpeners, which I can replace as needed for less cost, available. I ask those that can to bring their own. They also share with those around them. I keep some erasers there for them to use if they don't have one; they ask me, and they use it at my desk and leave it there. Middle schoolers are fidgety. They'll destroy an eraser in a couple of days just messing with it, so I don't pass them out regularly. When a kid has used all of the eraser at the end of their pencil, there's usually someone at their table who has one to share; if not, they come to me and I share.

It's not great, but it's the best compromise I could come up with. FWIW, I spend more of my own personal funds on classroom supplies than any one family does for a student in my room, and I specify that those community supplies are donations, not requirements so that struggling families, or families with many children instead of a couple, aren't burdened.

[rufus dog]

7. If you can

Take the list provided by the teacher, pick a few items, double the request, and pick up the teacher a $10 card for Coffee.

They ain't the problem.

Remember their are a lot of people in your kids class who have no spare cash so don't make the teacher a fundraiser.

[onpatrol98]

20. I do things like that

I like lend a hand wherever I can. Not every lists is nutty. Some are simply strange. Every once in awhile, you have a few that are like???

My family is full of teachers. I get the whole "eat the cost" of things. I do it for my job as well. I simply think some teachers make more of an effort to be conscientious about what they put on school lists, and some could think about the expense a little bit more.

Is the "Sharpie" versus the generic permanent marker, really a game changer?

[bluestateguy]

11. It must be so much easier to be a teacher in a wealthy school district

where this would not even be an issue.

[pstokely]

13. Any teachers in wealthy districts here?

Is this an issue in those districts?

[Missy Vixen]

14. We just had a "supplemental levy"

Washington State provides that districts over their median income may ask for additional taxpayer dollars via levy. We got quite a letter from the local school board demanding everyone vote for the levy. After all, they need updated "technology".

The school district had a technology levy last year, which I believe passed. We're also ten miles from Microsoft, whose employees are able to purchase (and donate) software and other items at a significant savings from retail cost.

The school supplies list for our district can be found at the following.

http://www.sw.riverview.wednet.edu/

Am I reading the "community supplies" for kindergartners correctly -- 48 glue sticks per kid, or is this divided amongst the kids in the class?

[petronius]

34. I don't have kids, so I'd never heard of 'supply list', although I remember

bringing my own pencils and notebooks to junior high and up. That seems like an awful lot of stuff to have to buy, and a fee on top of it? What's the fee for? And why does the one class require Ticonderoga pencils only? :shrug:

It seems to me that something is very wrong with school funding these days, but any parent who speaks up about these costs would make their kid a target...

[seabeyond]

17. look at my rant below. weathy school district. nt

[msanthrope]

35. My kid goes to a 'wealthy' private school. We still have lists. n/t

[seabeyond]

16. i have always been thankful i coul afford but...yesterday got list. SEVEN 4 count pkges glue stick

SEVEN. pkgs. 7. i am buying hte school 28 sticks of glue

TWO rulers. i am buying two rulers. my kid only needs one ruler. no other explanation but i am buying for others. why the hell am i buying two rulers

TWO 3 subject notebooks for one class. when i was in college, i would have a 5 subject notebook for all classes adn have paper left over.

the schools are so far to the extreme on this. there is no need for some of these purchases.

THREE journal notebooks for another class

i am griping this year

[Tracer]

26. This is so strange to me.

Obviously, I must be an old coot, because I truly cannot remember buying ANYTHING for my kids other than some new clothes/shoes and perhaps a new lunch box.

There MIGHT have been occasional small requests during the year for something specific, but that's all.

How times have changed.

[seabeyond]

28. and thsoe are just the few things that made me mad the list is much longer. well,

off to shop, lol

[msanthrope]

36. Can I give you an explanation on the glue sticks?

You would think children ate those damn things. Seriously.

Between excessive use, and failure to replace the cap, I can imagine the teacher is EASILY going through one per week, per child.


Same thing with rulers. Kids lose 'em.

2 three subject notebooks? Not surprised. Again, you probably have an accounting for when the kid loses one.