Different school supplies required for boys vs. girls

[Anonymous]

I just looked up the required school supplies for my DD's school, and I'm baffled by the list. Namely, I don't understand why there are some supplies that are required for girls only and others that are required for boys only. I could understand if they were boy or girl-specific hygiene supplies but this really makes no sense.

Here are the specific items. Anyone have any insight as to why these items are required for one gender or the other? I'm especially curious about the glue. WTH?


? BOYS: 1 bottle of Elmer’s WHITE glue
? GIRLS: 1 pack of baby wipes
? BOYS: ziplock bags: Gallon
? GIRLS: ziplock bags: Quart

[Anonymous]

Are they the same grade? If so, I'd guess it's a mistake.

[Anonymous]

These look like communal supplies for the classroom and it's probably easiest to divide who brings what by gender.

[Anonymous]

It's a shorthand way of saying "half the classs bring glue and gallon bags, half the class bring baby wiped and quart bags." They don't need a whole class worth of each of those.

...and I'm alarmed that you could not figure this out.

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing it's a good way to "assign" supplies for those that they don't need 30 items of. Sort of like the pot luck invite that says last names A-M bring main dish, N-Z bring sides.

[Anonymous]

Teacher is just managing the class supplies. This way they don't get 36 bottles of glue AND 36 packs of baby wipes -- just 18 of each or whatever. Teacher could have said last name A-M bring gallon size bags, N-Z bring quart size.
Everyone's so hyper-sensitive around here.

[Anonymous]

LOL

[Anonymous]

Maybe they just want about 15 packs of quart bags and 15 gallon bags, rather than 30 of one or the other. The kids all share most if the supplies, I wouldn't read too much into it.

[Anonymous]

They just split it along gender lines to be easy.

40 kids in a class - but they need only 20 bottles of glue and 20 boxes of wipes for the whole class. So, to make it simple, they assign the glue to girls and wipes to boys. The supplies all get put together in the same supply cabinet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These look like communal supplies for the classroom and it's probably easiest to divide who brings what by gender.

Agree. These are likely communal things so instead of
Having everyone in the class brings the same thing they divided it up by boys vs girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a shorthand way of saying "half the classs bring glue and gallon bags, half the class bring baby wiped and quart bags." They don't need a whole class worth of each of those.

...and I'm alarmed that you could not figure this out.

Some people would rather look for ways to be offended and call out someone for being sexist or whatever than take the time to apply logic to the issue at hand. I imagine it must be an interesting way to go through life

[Anonymous]

OP slinks away . . . .

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks. I didn't know they had communal supplies in kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten a few decades ago everyone had to bring their own supplies, and there was no communal anything. Thus why I didn't figure it out (to the PP who was alarmed that I couldn't figure this out -- sheesh). This is all new to me, as there is also no communal anything in my DCs' preschool either.

I also wasn't being sensitive to anything. I was simply curious.

Also, the logic isn't necessarily sound. If they really just want 50% of the class bringing some communal supplies, it doesn't follow that dividing the list by gender is the way to go. Classes are generally not evenly divided along gender lines, and often they are heavily weighted with more of one gender than the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks. I didn't know they had communal supplies in kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten a few decades ago everyone had to bring their own supplies, and there was no communal anything. Thus why I didn't figure it out (to the PP who was alarmed that I couldn't figure this out -- sheesh). This is all new to me, as there is also no communal anything in my DCs' preschool either.

I also wasn't being sensitive to anything. I was simply curious.

Also, the logic isn't necessarily sound. If they really just want 50% of the class bringing some communal supplies, it doesn't follow that dividing the list by gender is the way to go. Classes are generally not evenly divided along gender lines, and often they are heavily weighted with more of one gender than the other.

You all had your own stash of Kleenex and Ziplock bags? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thanks. I didn't know they had communal supplies in kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten a few decades ago everyone had to bring their own supplies, and there was no communal anything. Thus why I didn't figure it out (to the PP who was alarmed that I couldn't figure this out -- sheesh). This is all new to me, as there is also no communal anything in my DCs' preschool either.

I also wasn't being sensitive to anything. I was simply curious.

Also, the logic isn't necessarily sound. If they really just want 50% of the class bringing some communal supplies, it doesn't follow that dividing the list by gender is the way to go. Classes are generally not evenly divided along gender lines, and often they are heavily weighted with more of one gender than the other.

You really are out of it. The schools spend a lot of time constructing class lists so the gender balance is pretty equal.