"Whatever you do, don't bring used supplies to school"

[Anonymous]

This thread caused me to pull up my DC's back to school list for 1st grade. I'll see your 4, 8, 12 packs of glue and raise you "20 Large Glue Sticks."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread caused me to pull up my DC's back to school list for 1st grade. I'll see your 4, 8, 12 packs of glue and raise you "20 Large Glue Sticks."

Last year my child's teacher sent home an email every week pleading for glue sticks. I finally caved around March/April and bought/sent in a box of 30 small glue sticks, even though my child said they weren't needed and there was already a box like that on the supplies shelf. I later talked to the room mom and another mom who'd also sent in boxes of 30 glue sticks earlier in the spring. No clue what happened to the dozens (if not 100) glue sticks the teacher amassed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience (mom, SIL are teachers), teachers count on the supply list to cover everything for the year, and have to make up any gaps out of their own pockets. So if everyone brings in half packs of construction paper and partially used erasers, that might be economically sound on the parents' parts but it pushes the cost onto the teacher at the end of the semester when there's not enough supplies left.

Not in arlington. They have a budget for that.

No they don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to say, I am very impressed with the environmental ethic that so many people in this thread seem to share! I have to admit that using the rest of a half-used composition book for my own notetaking is not something that would even occur to me. I like having my own supplies that I choose for myself.

My kids went to elementary school at Taylor, and the great thing there was that you could just pay $40-50 to the PTA (depending on the class and the list) and they would take care of the supplies for you. They would take advantage of bulk purchasing, and I'm sure there would be leftover money for the PTA coffers, and that was fine with me. Boom and done. It was awesome. Such a nice change from daycare/preschool, where I would spend the night before the first day of the new "class year" running around from CVS to Target to Staples staring at depleted shelves, trying to find specific things on the supply lists. It was WELL worth the extra cost to do this (and honestly, I don't think there would have been much saved by buying everything myself, to say nothing of the time value of avoiding that chore).

I honestly don't remember getting back much at the end of the year in the way of unused or partially used supplies, e.g., leftover glue sticks or tissues or white board markers. It would be better if they would just keep that stuff at the school. In any event, I thought the idea was that most of the supplies were treated as a sort of "communal property," which is why brand names and sizes were often specified, as it makes it easier and more fair for everyone to have the same stuff.

Every year, those stupid kid scissors came home at the end of the year. Why on Earth do those need to be sent home with each kid instead of kept for the classroom year after year? How many kiddie scissors does one house need?!

The Edukits were great as far as efficiency - and to ensure all kids had the same supplies. But increasingly expensive and not particularly economical - almost $80 for one by 4th or 5th grade! And those same stupid scissors and extra glue sticks still came home at the end of the year. And the countless barely-used composition books. yes, I too, kept them and am still using them up with my personal uses, even though I absolutely HATE them because they don't open flat, can't fold them over, can't easily rip out pages.

5th grade kit was about $100 this year for our 5th grader and included another Case-it, which we bought last year and is still in fine condition.
And we needed four dozen pencils. Which seems like a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to say, I am very impressed with the environmental ethic that so many people in this thread seem to share! I have to admit that using the rest of a half-used composition book for my own notetaking is not something that would even occur to me. I like having my own supplies that I choose for myself.

My kids went to elementary school at Taylor, and the great thing there was that you could just pay $40-50 to the PTA (depending on the class and the list) and they would take care of the supplies for you. They would take advantage of bulk purchasing, and I'm sure there would be leftover money for the PTA coffers, and that was fine with me. Boom and done. It was awesome. Such a nice change from daycare/preschool, where I would spend the night before the first day of the new "class year" running around from CVS to Target to Staples staring at depleted shelves, trying to find specific things on the supply lists. It was WELL worth the extra cost to do this (and honestly, I don't think there would have been much saved by buying everything myself, to say nothing of the time value of avoiding that chore).

I honestly don't remember getting back much at the end of the year in the way of unused or partially used supplies, e.g., leftover glue sticks or tissues or white board markers. It would be better if they would just keep that stuff at the school. In any event, I thought the idea was that most of the supplies were treated as a sort of "communal property," which is why brand names and sizes were often specified, as it makes it easier and more fair for everyone to have the same stuff.

Every year, those stupid kid scissors came home at the end of the year. Why on Earth do those need to be sent home with each kid instead of kept for the classroom year after year? How many kiddie scissors does one house need?!

The Edukits were great as far as efficiency - and to ensure all kids had the same supplies. But increasingly expensive and not particularly economical - almost $80 for one by 4th or 5th grade! And those same stupid scissors and extra glue sticks still came home at the end of the year. And the countless barely-used composition books. yes, I too, kept them and am still using them up with my personal uses, even though I absolutely HATE them because they don't open flat, can't fold them over, can't easily rip out pages.

I hate the composition books, too. I hated them as a kid. For all of the mentioned reasons. No idea why these are still “standard.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread caused me to pull up my DC's back to school list for 1st grade. I'll see your 4, 8, 12 packs of glue and raise you "20 Large Glue Sticks."

Last year my child's teacher sent home an email every week pleading for glue sticks. I finally caved around March/April and bought/sent in a box of 30 small glue sticks, even though my child said they weren't needed and there was already a box like that on the supplies shelf. I later talked to the room mom and another mom who'd also sent in boxes of 30 glue sticks earlier in the spring. No clue what happened to the dozens (if not 100) glue sticks the teacher amassed.

You mean you haven’t heard about the glue stick black market??

Sometimes teachers who have a class of parents who bring supplies will ask for supplies for other classrooms where the make up of the class may have parents who don’t respond as well to requests. I guess we hope that parents wouldn’t really mind because it is staying in the grade level/school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was posted by a teacher in my local moms group. Why? The fact that our children bring home tons of slightly used pencils/erasers/scissors/folders/etc is testament to the fact that they don't get fully used up during the school year and you don't NEED brand new supplies. What harm is it to you if we send those same items in for the coming school year?

Exactly and I agree

and I would have posted "whatever you do, don't request ridiculous amounts of supplies that are really not needed and won't even get used"

Teacher lists need to be way, way trimmed down and they need to only add what a kid really needs.

I have multiple composition books that I now use for notes. Yes, I still write things down. My comp books have stickers on them, have been colored on, have my kids name on them. They also have nothing written in them.

I thought I was the only one who did this!
Every year “need 6 composition notebooks, one for each subject.” 8 months later, they have 2 pages written in them and the other 98 pages are blank. So I use them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what I've learned from this thread is that people will complain if they get back unused supplies (wasteful!) and complain if they don't get back the unused supplies (those are mine!). I don't believe there's anything the teachers could do that wouldn't lead to complaining, so I don't see the point in wondering why they don't do things differently.

This is kind of disingenuous. I’m not even sure it’s the teachers who make these lists. But if the kids are going to use 3 pages of a composition book, they don’t need one. They can use notebook paper. Or one composition book for all the subjects. The point is, just don’t ask for supplies that aren’t actually needed. But yes, if stuff is leftover, send it Back to the people who paid for it in the first place. Why is that hard?

It's not disingenuous at all, because I'm not trying to accurately describe your personal complaints. Everything I listed has been complained about in the thread by different people. You're just complaining from yet another angle - these lists are stupid, who makes them?! And I personally would prefer that they keep any leftovers rather than send it back to me, but I've never in life complained about it either way.

I don't envy teachers. I get the list, I buy the crap, I send it in. It's not particularly expensive, but I know that some families can't afford it so I buy extra or make a donation for that purpose. At this point I haven't even met the teacher yet but look at all these parents pissed off at her from the jump because of . . . everything and nothing! It's not like these teachers invented the concept of bringing in school supplies.

You're whining that other people think the process could be better? Ok. Your complaints are valid, others are not.

"Think the process could be better" by ::checks notes:: definitely sending back unused supplies, but also never sending back unused supplies. Yep. Great, valid input in this thread. Pointing out that you're all at cross purposes isn't whining, it's summarizing.

But just to be clear, I am saying you guys are whiners and I pity teachers. You're literally arguing that teachers are wrong and bad for not doing things the way you want them, even though the things you want are completely contradictory and mutually exclusive. But teachers are the problem, sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what I've learned from this thread is that people will complain if they get back unused supplies (wasteful!) and complain if they don't get back the unused supplies (those are mine!). I don't believe there's anything the teachers could do that wouldn't lead to complaining, so I don't see the point in wondering why they don't do things differently.

This is kind of disingenuous. I’m not even sure it’s the teachers who make these lists. But if the kids are going to use 3 pages of a composition book, they don’t need one. They can use notebook paper. Or one composition book for all the subjects. The point is, just don’t ask for supplies that aren’t actually needed. But yes, if stuff is leftover, send it Back to the people who paid for it in the first place. Why is that hard?

It's not disingenuous at all, because I'm not trying to accurately describe your personal complaints. Everything I listed has been complained about in the thread by different people. You're just complaining from yet another angle - these lists are stupid, who makes them?! And I personally would prefer that they keep any leftovers rather than send it back to me, but I've never in life complained about it either way.

I don't envy teachers. I get the list, I buy the crap, I send it in. It's not particularly expensive, but I know that some families can't afford it so I buy extra or make a donation for that purpose. At this point I haven't even met the teacher yet but look at all these parents pissed off at her from the jump because of . . . everything and nothing! It's not like these teachers invented the concept of bringing in school supplies.

You're whining that other people think the process could be better? Ok. Your complaints are valid, others are not.

"Think the process could be better" by ::checks notes:: definitely sending back unused supplies, but also never sending back unused supplies. Yep. Great, valid input in this thread. Pointing out that you're all at cross purposes isn't whining, it's summarizing.

But just to be clear, I am saying you guys are whiners and I pity teachers. You're literally arguing that teachers are wrong and bad for not doing things the way you want them, even though the things you want are completely contradictory and mutually exclusive. But teachers are the problem, sure.

People have no idea. If my kid actually has a permanent teacher in his classroom come fall, I’ll buy all the glue sticks they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what I've learned from this thread is that people will complain if they get back unused supplies (wasteful!) and complain if they don't get back the unused supplies (those are mine!). I don't believe there's anything the teachers could do that wouldn't lead to complaining, so I don't see the point in wondering why they don't do things differently.

This is kind of disingenuous. I’m not even sure it’s the teachers who make these lists. But if the kids are going to use 3 pages of a composition book, they don’t need one. They can use notebook paper. Or one composition book for all the subjects. The point is, just don’t ask for supplies that aren’t actually needed. But yes, if stuff is leftover, send it Back to the people who paid for it in the first place. Why is that hard?

It's not disingenuous at all, because I'm not trying to accurately describe your personal complaints. Everything I listed has been complained about in the thread by different people. You're just complaining from yet another angle - these lists are stupid, who makes them?! And I personally would prefer that they keep any leftovers rather than send it back to me, but I've never in life complained about it either way.

I don't envy teachers. I get the list, I buy the crap, I send it in. It's not particularly expensive, but I know that some families can't afford it so I buy extra or make a donation for that purpose. At this point I haven't even met the teacher yet but look at all these parents pissed off at her from the jump because of . . . everything and nothing! It's not like these teachers invented the concept of bringing in school supplies.

You're whining that other people think the process could be better? Ok. Your complaints are valid, others are not.

"Think the process could be better" by ::checks notes:: definitely sending back unused supplies, but also never sending back unused supplies. Yep. Great, valid input in this thread. Pointing out that you're all at cross purposes isn't whining, it's summarizing.

But just to be clear, I am saying you guys are whiners and I pity teachers. You're literally arguing that teachers are wrong and bad for not doing things the way you want them, even though the things you want are completely contradictory and mutually exclusive. But teachers are the problem, sure.

If you mix a bunch of answers together, sure.

I re-used whatever we could and bought new for the rest. Kids don't need brand new every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what I've learned from this thread is that people will complain if they get back unused supplies (wasteful!) and complain if they don't get back the unused supplies (those are mine!). I don't believe there's anything the teachers could do that wouldn't lead to complaining, so I don't see the point in wondering why they don't do things differently.

This is kind of disingenuous. I’m not even sure it’s the teachers who make these lists. But if the kids are going to use 3 pages of a composition book, they don’t need one. They can use notebook paper. Or one composition book for all the subjects. The point is, just don’t ask for supplies that aren’t actually needed. But yes, if stuff is leftover, send it Back to the people who paid for it in the first place. Why is that hard?

It's not disingenuous at all, because I'm not trying to accurately describe your personal complaints. Everything I listed has been complained about in the thread by different people. You're just complaining from yet another angle - these lists are stupid, who makes them?! And I personally would prefer that they keep any leftovers rather than send it back to me, but I've never in life complained about it either way.

I don't envy teachers. I get the list, I buy the crap, I send it in. It's not particularly expensive, but I know that some families can't afford it so I buy extra or make a donation for that purpose. At this point I haven't even met the teacher yet but look at all these parents pissed off at her from the jump because of . . . everything and nothing! It's not like these teachers invented the concept of bringing in school supplies.

You're whining that other people think the process could be better? Ok. Your complaints are valid, others are not.

"Think the process could be better" by ::checks notes:: definitely sending back unused supplies, but also never sending back unused supplies. Yep. Great, valid input in this thread. Pointing out that you're all at cross purposes isn't whining, it's summarizing.

But just to be clear, I am saying you guys are whiners and I pity teachers. You're literally arguing that teachers are wrong and bad for not doing things the way you want them, even though the things you want are completely contradictory and mutually exclusive. But teachers are the problem, sure.

People have no idea. If my kid actually has a permanent teacher in his classroom come fall, I’ll buy all the glue sticks they want.

Both problems are solved by limiting the number of unused supplies to begin with. In real life, I buy the stuff from the list, send it in, & of course don’t complain to the teacher. But yes, it would be nice for the lists to accurately reflect what is needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what I've learned from this thread is that people will complain if they get back unused supplies (wasteful!) and complain if they don't get back the unused supplies (those are mine!). I don't believe there's anything the teachers could do that wouldn't lead to complaining, so I don't see the point in wondering why they don't do things differently.

This is kind of disingenuous. I’m not even sure it’s the teachers who make these lists. But if the kids are going to use 3 pages of a composition book, they don’t need one. They can use notebook paper. Or one composition book for all the subjects. The point is, just don’t ask for supplies that aren’t actually needed. But yes, if stuff is leftover, send it Back to the people who paid for it in the first place. Why is that hard?

It's not disingenuous at all, because I'm not trying to accurately describe your personal complaints. Everything I listed has been complained about in the thread by different people. You're just complaining from yet another angle - these lists are stupid, who makes them?! And I personally would prefer that they keep any leftovers rather than send it back to me, but I've never in life complained about it either way.

I don't envy teachers. I get the list, I buy the crap, I send it in. It's not particularly expensive, but I know that some families can't afford it so I buy extra or make a donation for that purpose. At this point I haven't even met the teacher yet but look at all these parents pissed off at her from the jump because of . . . everything and nothing! It's not like these teachers invented the concept of bringing in school supplies.

You're whining that other people think the process could be better? Ok. Your complaints are valid, others are not.

"Think the process could be better" by ::checks notes:: definitely sending back unused supplies, but also never sending back unused supplies. Yep. Great, valid input in this thread. Pointing out that you're all at cross purposes isn't whining, it's summarizing.

But just to be clear, I am saying you guys are whiners and I pity teachers. You're literally arguing that teachers are wrong and bad for not doing things the way you want them, even though the things you want are completely contradictory and mutually exclusive. But teachers are the problem, sure.

Where did everyone blame teachers? I don't think the teachers come up with the list, the issue is more that the list never gets updated. It's the same composition books, water colors, 600 pencils, safety scissors every year. We get the supplies back and it's hard not to notice that some never get used. So, the powers that be, probably not the teachers, might want to do an audit of the school supply lists at some point and update as needed. It places a financial burden on some families and it seems unnecessary. Other people may have different options. Your opinion is that everyone should just shut up and take it and never question authority.

[Anonymous]

I'm not buying any supplies this year. ACPS has screwed me so hard I'm not giving them another dime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what I've learned from this thread is that people will complain if they get back unused supplies (wasteful!) and complain if they don't get back the unused supplies (those are mine!). I don't believe there's anything the teachers could do that wouldn't lead to complaining, so I don't see the point in wondering why they don't do things differently.

This is kind of disingenuous. I’m not even sure it’s the teachers who make these lists. But if the kids are going to use 3 pages of a composition book, they don’t need one. They can use notebook paper. Or one composition book for all the subjects. The point is, just don’t ask for supplies that aren’t actually needed. But yes, if stuff is leftover, send it Back to the people who paid for it in the first place. Why is that hard?

It's not disingenuous at all, because I'm not trying to accurately describe your personal complaints. Everything I listed has been complained about in the thread by different people. You're just complaining from yet another angle - these lists are stupid, who makes them?! And I personally would prefer that they keep any leftovers rather than send it back to me, but I've never in life complained about it either way.

I don't envy teachers. I get the list, I buy the crap, I send it in. It's not particularly expensive, but I know that some families can't afford it so I buy extra or make a donation for that purpose. At this point I haven't even met the teacher yet but look at all these parents pissed off at her from the jump because of . . . everything and nothing! It's not like these teachers invented the concept of bringing in school supplies.

You're whining that other people think the process could be better? Ok. Your complaints are valid, others are not.

"Think the process could be better" by ::checks notes:: definitely sending back unused supplies, but also never sending back unused supplies. Yep. Great, valid input in this thread. Pointing out that you're all at cross purposes isn't whining, it's summarizing.

But just to be clear, I am saying you guys are whiners and I pity teachers. You're literally arguing that teachers are wrong and bad for not doing things the way you want them, even though the things you want are completely contradictory and mutually exclusive. But teachers are the problem, sure.

Did anyone ever explain WHY teachers don't want us to bring lightly used supplies to school?

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP of this thread. This was my post, to get us back on track:

"Why? The fact that our children bring home tons of slightly used pencils/erasers/scissors/folders/etc is testament to the fact that they don't get fully used up during the school year and you don't NEED brand new supplies. What harm is it to you if we send those same items in for the coming school year?"