School Supplies lists and Janitorial Supplies

[Anonymous]

I just don't understand some of you mommas - I remember being a student in the 1980s and having to bring in tissues and paper towels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School supplies should be school supplies. No baby wipes, no Clorox wipes, no tissues, no paper towels. Use what the school provides and what taxpayers have already PAID FOR! she should have cleaning spray they have toilet tissue they have paper towels. It’s very obnoxious to request parents to spend more money because you prefer something better than what’s already been purchased. This has to stop.

Teachers are not requesting “better” items… they are simply requesting the needed items that THEY DON’T HAVE or DON’T HAVE ENOUGH OF. No one is holding a tissue drive because they have a brand preference, they are holding a tissue drive because they have NO tissues! Same with cleaning supplies. There are not enough custodians to do the deep cleaning that is needed to maintain clean classroom spaces, so that falls to classroom teachers. Teachers are requesting these supplies because they don’t have them ! You seriously think all the teachers out there that ask for these items are asking because they are being snotty about a particular brand of tissue ?!

What a teacher on this thread said was she asks for wipes from parents because that’s easier than requesting paper towels in advance and using the provided cleaning spray. She prefers Clorox wipes and so asks the parents.

You have a point about being asked to donate more effective cleaning products. Really, the teacher shouldn’t be cleaning the spaces that your kids use at all. If the students get sick, they get sick. Right? And if the teacher gets sick too, the kids that are well enough will manage just fine with whatever subs the school can come up with.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:120 Ticonderoga pencils? You're exaggerating right?

Nope not kidding. 24 pack presharpebed pencils x 5 packs. Last year the teacher only let him have 2 pencils. This communal thing is crazy. We aren’t working hard to spend our money for other people.

I wouldn't send that many. Send one pack and keep another at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:120 Ticonderoga pencils? You're exaggerating right?

Nope not kidding. 24 pack presharpebed pencils x 5 packs. Last year the teacher only let him have 2 pencils. This communal thing is crazy. We aren’t working hard to spend our money for other people.

I’m a teacher. I have to spend my own money on others’ children all the time. When parents don’t provide, I have to purchase. Some years parents are generous and provide what’s on the list. Some years parents provide very little and I have to do bulk orders with my own money. It adds up. I’ve spend over $800 on supplies some years.

Has it occurred to you that some parents can't afford the ridiculous lists teachers put out like the 120 name brand Ticonderoga pencils when their kids only see 2?

I could not afford it what did the teachers do? Shame me, time and time again. This happened in Fairfax county. I wasn't given anything I had to ask to borrow from other students a piece of paper, a pencil. I was not my fault yet I was chastised for it by EVERY teacher. Now you say you hand things out for those who don't. Well guess what? I never saw that. At all, ever. So I have a very hard time believing that to this day.

Wife of a teacher here, believe it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t send it. I send my kids with things but not communal things.

Exhibit A: Reasons why teachers ask for extra supplies

Or why they spend their own money on classroom supplies for kids who aren’t theirs.

Imagine if you had to pay for the ink toner and printing paper to do your job. Add to that, new teacher salaries are usually not high enough for them to live on their own in FFX County. So please, just send in the supplies. Your kid might end up sharing a pencil/marker here or there, it won’t be the end of the world.

Yeah, but the OP’s teacher is asking for too many pencils in my opinion.

welcome to federal employee land, except we don't get to deduct it from our taxes.

My husband is a federal employee. He does not bring his own supplies.

The teacher deduction is significantly less than what teachers spend and also doesn’t impact what I owe on taxes at all. I’ve had a student tell me it was my job to provide her supplies. No, honey, it’s not. I imagine her parents are on this thread.

Fed here. We absolutely don’t get supplies. If you want a pen, you buy your own. We don’t even have a credit card for my org to get supplies with. Printing is so restricted you have to have a reason and ask permission.

But I don’t mind sending supplies. Id like to just pay $100 and have the teacher get what she wants, but I’ll follow the lists since that’s not an option. I don’t like communal supplies though. My dd likes the hot pink Ticonderoga pencils, erasers that actually work and so on. So I donate the right amount of pencils and stuff, but then give my dd her favorites to keep at her desk and in her backpack. I remember liking my Lisa Frank folders and hello kitty pens and would have been so upset as a kid to get those confiscated and then been given some plain off-brand one instead.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how much classroom supplies could be bought for the cost of one bodyguard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are none left over. Your children will break and lose all the pencils. They will let them fall on the floor and will walk over them instead of picking them up.

We use wipes snd paper towels probably for the same thing you do—cleaning things, wiping up messes, drying hands.

THIS! I am a sub and am constantly telling kids to pick up pencils from the floor.

Our teachers and subs did NOT play when I was a kid back in the 80s.

This is partly a cultural problem. You break a pencil, you sharpened both pieces and had two little pencils. Disrespect and waste was not tolerated.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind sending in a box of wipes or tissues. But I’m not sending in 3 boxes of Ticonderoga pencils. Just 2 boxes will be enough for each child to have a pencil plus extras. And that’s just if only one kid brings in 2 boxes, let alone 25. There are some other items that I decided I’m paring down the list for.

[Anonymous]

I work in a schoolwide position. Since Covid in particular, the way students disrespect school supplies has made it harder in my classroom. I open 4 new boxes of pencils every one-two weeks because students break them in half, walk away with them, and intentionally break the tips so they have to be resharpened much more frequently. My school doesn't share supplies with specialists, so that's literally hundreds of dollars I am spending just on pencils. There's also crayons, craft supplies for lesson activities, tissues, etc. along with dozens of books every year to punch up my classroom library. I get that parents are frustrated, and it's totally within your rights to buy fewer supplies. It's also one of the major reasons I dissuade young people from teaching, because to do a good job, you end up spending a lot out of pocket. It's not like buying your own pens at a typical job. It's buying pens for everyone you work with, every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:120 Ticonderoga pencils? You're exaggerating right?

Nope not kidding. 24 pack presharpebed pencils x 5 packs. Last year the teacher only let him have 2 pencils. This communal thing is crazy. We aren’t working hard to spend our money for other people.

you are kidding, right? I am one of the hardest working and most conservative people I know, but I would not think twice about pooling the pencil supply in a classroom if that is what the teacher wanted to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t send it. I send my kids with things but not communal things.

Exhibit A: Reasons why teachers ask for extra supplies

Or why they spend their own money on classroom supplies for kids who aren’t theirs.

Imagine if you had to pay for the ink toner and printing paper to do your job. Add to that, new teacher salaries are usually not high enough for them to live on their own in FFX County. So please, just send in the supplies. Your kid might end up sharing a pencil/marker here or there, it won’t be the end of the world.

Yeah, but the OP’s teacher is asking for too many pencils in my opinion.

welcome to federal employee land, except we don't get to deduct it from our taxes.

My husband is a federal employee. He does not bring his own supplies.

The teacher deduction is significantly less than what teachers spend and also doesn’t impact what I owe on taxes at all. I’ve had a student tell me it was my job to provide her supplies. No, honey, it’s not. I imagine her parents are on this thread.

Fed here. We absolutely don’t get supplies. If you want a pen, you buy your own. We don’t even have a credit card for my org to get supplies with. Printing is so restricted you have to have a reason and ask permission.

But I don’t mind sending supplies. Id like to just pay $100 and have the teacher get what she wants, but I’ll follow the lists since that’s not an option. I don’t like communal supplies though. My dd likes the hot pink Ticonderoga pencils, erasers that actually work and so on. So I donate the right amount of pencils and stuff, but then give my dd her favorites to keep at her desk and in her backpack. I remember liking my Lisa Frank folders and hello kitty pens and would have been so upset as a kid to get those confiscated and then been given some plain off-brand one instead.

Do you bring in pens for yourself or for 25 people who are not you?

Why would you print things without a reason? Teachers paying for their own copy paper aren't printing things "without reason". They are printing things like worksheets for your child to do. If your job involves receiving forms that public fills out, is creating those forms considered a "reason" that you can print, or do you have to pay for the forms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t send it. I send my kids with things but not communal things.

Exhibit A: Reasons why teachers ask for extra supplies

Or why they spend their own money on classroom supplies for kids who aren’t theirs.

Imagine if you had to pay for the ink toner and printing paper to do your job. Add to that, new teacher salaries are usually not high enough for them to live on their own in FFX County. So please, just send in the supplies. Your kid might end up sharing a pencil/marker here or there, it won’t be the end of the world.

Yeah, but the OP’s teacher is asking for too many pencils in my opinion.

welcome to federal employee land, except we don't get to deduct it from our taxes.

My husband is a federal employee. He does not bring his own supplies.

The teacher deduction is significantly less than what teachers spend and also doesn’t impact what I owe on taxes at all. I’ve had a student tell me it was my job to provide her supplies. No, honey, it’s not. I imagine her parents are on this thread.

I’d love to know the last time that federal employee above had to purchase toilet paper or tissues for the entire office. Or, for that matter, copy paper for the entire office.

That teacher deduction is considerably less than what I actually spend each year.

Different federal employee here. I routinely buy tissues for my whole office and the “last time” was immediately before mass layoffs. Thanks for asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don't understand some of you mommas - I remember being a student in the 1980s and having to bring in tissues and paper towels.

I was a student in a comparably wealthy area to Fairfax in the 90s. Each student was expected to bring one box of tissues. My mother would have laughed at a request for Clorox wipes and offered to bring the teacher some dishrags.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School supplies should be school supplies. No baby wipes, no Clorox wipes, no tissues, no paper towels. Use what the school provides and what taxpayers have already PAID FOR! she should have cleaning spray they have toilet tissue they have paper towels. It’s very obnoxious to request parents to spend more money because you prefer something better than what’s already been purchased. This has to stop.

Teachers are not requesting “better” items… they are simply requesting the needed items that THEY DON’T HAVE or DON’T HAVE ENOUGH OF. No one is holding a tissue drive because they have a brand preference, they are holding a tissue drive because they have NO tissues! Same with cleaning supplies. There are not enough custodians to do the deep cleaning that is needed to maintain clean classroom spaces, so that falls to classroom teachers. Teachers are requesting these supplies because they don’t have them ! You seriously think all the teachers out there that ask for these items are asking because they are being snotty about a particular brand of tissue ?!

What a teacher on this thread said was she asks for wipes from parents because that’s easier than requesting paper towels in advance and using the provided cleaning spray. She prefers Clorox wipes and so asks the parents.

She prefers the Clorox wipes because the school provided paper towels suck for actual cleaning. Imagine using something equivalent to those super thin free gas station napkins to clean your house. Subpar cleaning result and lots of wasted time and effort. That is why there is a preference for the Clorox wipes, because they quickly and effectively get the job done.

Sure, but the PP ahead of you is saying that teachers aren’t requesting supplies because they don’t like what’s been given— which is exactly why you’re saying they’re requesting supplies.

I am sure you are right that Clorox wipes are nicer. The question is why it’s a parents job to buy a teacher nicer supplies.

I am given the opportunity to send kids to the bathroom to come back with wet and dry brown paper towels that don’t absorb water, leave a drippy mess, and don’t kill germs, they just spread them out, and make the desks too wet to work on. They also would run out fast if we used them for cleaning, and then I would be forced to wait a week before I moved the drippy germs around the desks.

So if someone buys you a $1.25 spray bottle and a $1.25 bottle of bleach to dilute with the (free) water and wipe down with the (free) paper towels that you dislike because they’re recycled, is that fine? Or does it have to be the absolute most expensive and wasteful product available in order to properly kill the UMC germs you’re dealing with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School supplies should be school supplies. No baby wipes, no Clorox wipes, no tissues, no paper towels. Use what the school provides and what taxpayers have already PAID FOR! she should have cleaning spray they have toilet tissue they have paper towels. It’s very obnoxious to request parents to spend more money because you prefer something better than what’s already been purchased. This has to stop.

Teachers are not requesting “better” items… they are simply requesting the needed items that THEY DON’T HAVE or DON’T HAVE ENOUGH OF. No one is holding a tissue drive because they have a brand preference, they are holding a tissue drive because they have NO tissues! Same with cleaning supplies. There are not enough custodians to do the deep cleaning that is needed to maintain clean classroom spaces, so that falls to classroom teachers. Teachers are requesting these supplies because they don’t have them ! You seriously think all the teachers out there that ask for these items are asking because they are being snotty about a particular brand of tissue ?!

What a teacher on this thread said was she asks for wipes from parents because that’s easier than requesting paper towels in advance and using the provided cleaning spray. She prefers Clorox wipes and so asks the parents.

She prefers the Clorox wipes because the school provided paper towels suck for actual cleaning. Imagine using something equivalent to those super thin free gas station napkins to clean your house. Subpar cleaning result and lots of wasted time and effort. That is why there is a preference for the Clorox wipes, because they quickly and effectively get the job done.

Sure, but the PP ahead of you is saying that teachers aren’t requesting supplies because they don’t like what’s been given— which is exactly why you’re saying they’re requesting supplies.

I am sure you are right that Clorox wipes are nicer. The question is why it’s a parents job to buy a teacher nicer supplies.

I am given the opportunity to send kids to the bathroom to come back with wet and dry brown paper towels that don’t absorb water, leave a drippy mess, and don’t kill germs, they just spread them out, and make the desks too wet to work on. They also would run out fast if we used them for cleaning, and then I would be forced to wait a week before I moved the drippy germs around the desks.

So if someone buys you a $1.25 spray bottle and a $1.25 bottle of bleach to dilute with the (free) water and wipe down with the (free) paper towels that you dislike because they’re recycled, is that fine? Or does it have to be the absolute most expensive and wasteful product available in order to properly kill the UMC germs you’re dealing with?

I don't dislike them because they are recycled. I used recycled paper towels at home. I dislike them because after you wipe a wet surface with them, the surface is still wet, and therefore a kid can't put any work on it without the work getting ruined.