Anonymous wrote:My kids go to a public school with a 3% FARMS rate and I don't see why we have to pool school supplies.
We never labeled anything in ES and had no issue with shared supplies, it made life easier for the Teacher. We had 8% FARMs at the school and there were parents who would not buy school supplies because they thought the school should supply them or they wanted to save that money for something else. The ones doing this were pretty public about it. Teachers don't get paid to provide supplies for the class, I can afford to share a box or two of pencils so that the Teacher doesn't have to.
We got an email from DS Algebra 1 Teacher last year; she needed pencils because the kids were showing up to class without pencils. This is 7th grade Algebra at Carson, a low FARMS school and kids whose parents have been reasonably involved in their education. Shared supplies have little to do with the FARMs rate and more to do with parents who are cheap or not paying attention to what their kid need. I sent in a couple of boxes of pencils; we had extras at home for a club that we have helped to run in ES. They are not that expensive, and it is a very small thing that helps my kid's teacher.
A few times in ES my kid wanted a specific type of pencil or school supply. I would buy the communal supplies and give those to the Teacehr and then add the specific ones he wanted to his pencil box or backpack after the year got going. I kept a supply of those at home so I could resupply him as needed.