Ridiculous school supplies thread!

Anonymous
You don't need special pens to edit your work. Generations of children have learned to write without being required to use green and red pens.

If you have the money, sure, it's fun to have all kinds of extra school supplies. Making them a requirement on supply lists is absurd. It's like silly wedding registries. Oh yeah, while we're at it, let's ask for a cherry pitter, a turkey lifter, and a toast rack.






Anonymous
Does anyone think 72 pencils per child is excessive? Can anyone help me rationalize this?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:You don't need special pens to edit your work. Generations of children have learned to write without being required to use green and red pens.

If you have the money, sure, it's fun to have all kinds of extra school supplies. Making them a requirement on supply lists is absurd. It's like silly wedding registries. Oh yeah, while we're at it, let's ask for a cherry pitter, a turkey lifter, and a toast rack.



I'm a teacher, and I could teach kids reading and math and all sorts of things in a room with slates, slate pencils and an old fashioned blackboard. I could probably teach a child to read with a stick and some dirt. But I can guarantee the process would be slower and more cumbersome.

Red and green pens add a few pennies to the cost of school supplies. Since you'd still need pens to edit the work, you're talking about the difference in cost between a red pen and a blue/black one. They mean that I can easily know when a student is cheating during test corrections. They make it easier for me to scan a child's file and see patterns of errors. Plus, kids like to use them. The result is a classroom that moves more efficiently. We might save 2 or 3 minutes a day, but for a daily activity like math fact tests (which is where I use the pens) that's 9 hours over the course of the school year. 9 extra hours of learning for your kid for the price of a pen, that's not bad. How much do you pay for 9 hours of music lessons, or travel soccer?

If you were at work, and there was an item you wanted that cost a couple dollars and would make a significant difference in your work efficiency, would you consider it absurd? I'm thinking of things like having your very own staples instead of walking to the copy room down the hall every time you want to attach 2 pieces of paper to each other, or something in your filing cabinet that holds the files up so you can look through them easily. Because having proper school supplies makes a similar difference to your child.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think 72 pencils per child is excessive? Can anyone help me rationalize this?


2 pencils a week? I don't consider that absurd.
Anonymous
5 reams of copy paper PER CHILD -
Public school - We won't be participating in this paper drop as I believe copy paper falls under "tax payer" supplied free public education !
Anonymous
Darn it pp, you beat me. I was going to add ONE ream of paper. But, I will raise you the Nerf football.
Anonymous
for us last year (kindergarten): writing child's name on each and every pencil, crayon, and marker -- in a fine point, Sharpie

CRAZY!!!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I can't think of anything. I order our school supplies through the PTA. It's amazing!

What is ridiculous about a pencil sharpener and some play doh?


Why can't the classroom have a pencil sharpener that the whole class uses? That worked for my kindergarten class in 1990; it should work now.


Because kids are chained to desks these days for standardized testing.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:5 reams of copy paper PER CHILD -
Public school - We won't be participating in this paper drop as I believe copy paper falls under "tax payer" supplied free public education !


Nobody wants to pay taxes for your copier paper!! Stop being cheap. Public school doesn't mean free anymore!
Anonymous
"If you were at work, and there was an item you wanted that cost a couple dollars and would make a significant difference in your work efficiency, would you consider it absurd? "

If it only costs a few dollars, it shouldn't be a problem for the teacher to buy it.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:"If you were at work, and there was an item you wanted that cost a couple dollars and would make a significant difference in your work efficiency, would you consider it absurd? "

If it only costs a few dollars, it shouldn't be a problem for the teacher to buy it.


I used to work for the county. Getting supplies depending on the agency and supervisor was a joke. I bought all my own supplies from pens to paper to staples. Sorry no empathy. I will supply what my kids need but not teachers. The county wastes so much money on nothing. Perhaps we should look at the wasteful spending so employees can be supplied with basics. The irony is the admin in their fancy offices get supplies but the teachers do not. We are on a budget. Those pennies add up. To the teacher with the dirt comment. My kid would love that. You could probably teach him better as he have far more fun with a stick and dirt than a fancy board or ipad.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:5 reams of copy paper PER CHILD -
Public school - We won't be participating in this paper drop as I believe copy paper falls under "tax payer" supplied free public education !


Nobody wants to pay taxes for your copier paper!! Stop being cheap. Public school doesn't mean free anymore!


We pay taxes for our schools. They are by no means free.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think 72 pencils per child is excessive? Can anyone help me rationalize this?


2 pencils a week? I don't consider that absurd.


I do, when they're doing so much on a virtual level.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Oh, and I think the most annoying requests were for five boxes of markers in second grade. Five?

That and teachers putting green and red marking pens on the kids' school supplies list. Seriously, there's no money in the budget for teachers to have red pens? And they go through 25 of them in a year?


There are great strategies that require the kids to,have the color pens, they might be for your kid to use, not the teacher.
Anonymous
PreK private school supply list:
5 pencils
1 box of crayons
Sanitizer and
1 box tissues
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