You might accuse me of being easy to please. But I find the simplest things in life totally joyful. One of the pleasures of my childhood, that I now experience with my kids is school shopping. My Mom was a teacher, so school was a big deal in our house, I credit her for my love of sharp pencils and fresh paper. I want to pass the excitement of a new year, new friends and new teacher on to my two girls. So we’ve been anticipating our school supply list. Grace is starting First Grade, I was expecting a pretty fun shopping list. Pencils, crayons, pens, glue sticks, erasers…the usual.
- A Backpack with your child’s name on it
- A pair of tennis shoes, labeled to leave at school
- and a Forty dollar check
That was the school supply list. Are you kidding me? This is criminal! It’s awful! What does this do to prepare students for the start of a new year? How does this teach them to be responsible for their belongings? It doesn’t, at all. It doesn’t make it easier for families, in fact I would guess that it’s actually more costly then just giving us a list. And there is no way to build excitement for a child who’s hesitant to return to school.
Part of the excitement for my brothers and I was looking through the Sunday paper at the adds. Planning our shopping, planning what color binders we would pick, what type of ruler. We will still shop for supplies, I will join the PTA, I will try and change this awful practice. It was bad enough that teachers were asking each student to bring 20 glue sticks, without writing your name on them. Fifty pencils to share, four pairs of scissors, and a colored pack of dry erase markers for the teacher. And I understand that not all families can afford to purchase school supplies for their children. But teachers can have an addistional list, and ask families to purchase two extra of certain items. Or teachers could give a supply list and ask for $10.00 from each family to help purchase any needed supplies. After all, life is not fair, it is not equal. It is a lesson we all have to learn, as we all know someone will always have something better, newer, more expensive. But it’s also important to learn to be satisfied with what you have, and to take care of your belongings.
I may be old fashioned, I graduated almost twenty years ago from highschool. Maybe this is the way of the future, but I’m not putting down the Elmers Glue and Crayola Crayons without a pretty good fight.
