When my three sons were little this was my least favorite time of the year. School supply time. I bought the basics all summer for awhile, but then I had to stop because the lists became so specific that I was wasting my money. Back then we didn’t get the lists until right before school started, when you pre registered your kids.
So, a week or two before school I was frantically trying to find specific brands of pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, glues, folders (and those had to be specific colors too), crayons, dictionaries, calculators, and on and on. Sometimes teachers had items on the list not even made by manufacturers listed.
And I, who learned how to prove theorems and construct pentagrams and calculate sines, cosines, and tangents all without ever owning a calculator by the time I graduated high school, I resented those calculators. I knew then that they weren’t aids that helped my young sons think and learn, at that age they were crutches.
No one will ever convince me otherwise. I needed calculators in college level math and physics. I was so much better off without them in school. Believe it or not, when I took my first trigonometry class at college level, the instructor would not allow us to use calculators on an exam, and I was fine with that. When I sat down to take those exams, because I understood triangles, sines, cosines, and tangents, I could remember and use any formula I needed myself, specific to each problem.
When I took chemistry in college there was even a calculator for that. I was the only one in the class who didn’t have one, because I couldn’t afford it and the tuition too. My kids were in high school then, and on the way to school one of my sons drilled me on the elements, and on the formulas and basics I had to know. I was the only one in that class to get an A, and the next year when my son took chemistry in high school he easily made an A as well.
Calculators are useful, but we have allowed them and computers to become crutches, and critical thinking skills have suffered. I learned to problem solve from math classes, a skill that has served me well in all areas of my life. Could it be possible that some of the problems our children have with anxiety these days is partially caused by the fact that we no longer teach them the tools to cope with life, as well as solve an Algebra problem?
The ability to think logically and analytically is a crucial skill, and we need it. Maybe we have a bunch of young adults running around feeling threatened by actual free and different thought and expression and opinions because they only know how to emote, not really think deeply.
So, one of my two main pet peeves with the schools, and teaching, was ridiculous school supply lists, and the second was projects. I still believe that some of the stupid, expensive projects kids have to make are just excuses for teachers not to teach while kids construct fake nuclear devices out of the $200 worth of materials I had to find back in the day when there was no Walmart after work. And no Amazon. I’m sure now it’s all climate change model stuff, and back to the topic of the post now, that can be for another time, Stupid Expensive School Projects.
I just saw a comment from one parent about her kid having to buy one specific and expensive Thesaurus because the teacher loved it. It was a deluxe model and cost way more than the basic thesaurus that would have been fine. I also saw parents comment on a number of items their kids never even used during the school year.
Several parents named a protractor. Good grief, sometimes I used mine so much that it would break and my mom would get me another one. And I was in junior high school then, what they call middle school now, at one of the worst schools in the city. I’m just guessing, but I think I probably learned more then, at that school, than private schools often teach now.
And I base that opinion partially on my own kids parochial school education. Often, I demanded that they show their work on math problems, rather than just the answer. I made them stick with units, knowing that just a numerical answer without a unit of measure was jibberish. I made them re-write English assignments and compositions, even when teachers accepted less than stellar work.
And those skills I used to push and tutor my own kids, most of them I learned by junior high school from good teachers, not in the college classes I later took. Indeed, I was often shocked in college classes at how little some instructors cared for detail, accuracy, and good sentences and paragraphs. When I was in school, if you had to write a paper for history class it was usually going to get almost as much scrutiny for form, punctuation, and spelling as the English teacher would give it. It made us better.
I used to be a manager at Staples, and I hated this time of year from the other side of the list, the retail employee trying to help frazzled parents on their ridiculous, demanding, and unnecessary school supply treasure hunt. One poor mother had the usual page long list, and in addition to all the specific supplies, paper towels, wipes, etc. listed, at the end the teacher had asked each parent for a cartridge for her laser printer, somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 if I remember correctly, on top of all the other stuff, including the scientific calculators that weren’t cheap.
This poor mother had tears in her eyes and was at the end of her rope when she saw what it was, and told me she had other children to supply as well. I told her to ignore the item and get what her kid had to have. I know teachers have no money in the school budgets for things like printer ink, and I know that they spend a lot of their own money on the classroom and kids. But parents are not able to be an open pocketbook either.
I well remember the frustration I felt at having three very different lists to fill at the last minute. I was spending at least $60 per kid in elementary school, and way more when they went to high school. That was a lot of money for us, and worse for many others.
Anyhow, I know lots of us here are grandparents, and help out, at least with money, on these lists. I thought it would be interesting to hear your experiences and strange items on the lists. Having googled this before doing my own post, as well as working at Staples, I know I’m not alone in hating this time of year, and the lists.
When I was a kid, we really went to school on the first day with a cigar box our mothers somehow cajoled out of the stores for us. In it we had a couple of those thick pencils you used for a couple of years when you were learning to write, a box of eight crayons, a brown bottle of Elmer’s glue, the kind with the sponge on the top, and scissors. That was it.
And the wolves chased you in the dark over 6 foot snow drifts on your way to school. Just kidding. But 12 Elmers glue sticks? What for? I use those things and they last a long time. With computers in every students backpack, what are they cutting and “pasting” the old fashioned way?
… And you could eat the paste (just never let Mom find out!)
YES!!! The first person in the row of desks got to go to the supply closet with a sheet of scrap paper. The teacher would then put a dab of paste on the paper to be passed back the row to share. It smelled GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!
Glue sticks weren’t around in my day (I’m 70) where we lived outside town. I did get one bottle of glue every term and when it ran out I had make a cooked glue paste with flour and water
99% of that is NEVER used through the ENTIRE 12 years of school. We wasted hundreds of dollars on “school supplies” that sat in our school stuff boxes from K-12 some went unused for the entire 12 years of school through numerous kids ages schools etc. NEVER follow the list, just paper pens pencils note books and index cards. The rest you get “as needed” because Following the LIST will just make COMMUNIST CORPORATIONS richer and you have to store the JUNK for DECADES!!!
Amen to this. I have been thinking about this also and we had slide rules…this was obviously before the computer…but logic and critical thinking are gone…
When I first started school in the 40’s we were given grade appropriate supplies on opening day. A box of crayons and a pencil. There were boxes of shared supplies such as rulers etc. when needed they were passed out and collected when finished. How I treasured my box of crayons. So careful not to break them. I laugh as I write this because for the last 41 years I owned my stained glass company and I still treasure every brush and tool I use. When I taught school I used a similar method with my students (22 years teaching)
We artists even give our tools names – and sometimes even semi-retirement parties when favorites finally wear out…. I admit that’s pretty far gone, LOL… But, if you take care of your tools, they take care of you :).
I have a badger brush that I call the Big guy. And no one ever uses that one. My first badger brush I bought it from an art store going out of business. Marked down to half price at $485.00. Almost $1000 when new. Still way to much. Went back on the last two days of business and got it for $90. It’s a treasure that can’t be replaced. I needed it for a church job that required painting. So I understand. It’s almost a friend.
Retired Magistrate here: My father didn’t make a lot of money and my mother was a “housewife”; she was there when my brother and I came home from school.
I never realized until I was an adult how much my parents sacrificed so my brother and I could have new school clothes each fall along with the needed school supplies. I still remember the smell of the new supplies; yes, they had their own fragrance along with the fragrance of new shoes, clothes and a book binder. My mother had one “good” dress the few times she and my Dad went out to dinner or to some social event. Never could figure out why she kept repurposing that dress. Of course it was so that the money that would have gone for a new dress for her went to buy school supplies and clothes for us.
Unfortunately, I grew so fast that I got maybe one or two month’s wear out of my dresses and then they were too small. By the time I was 12 I reached my height of 5″9″ tall. I am sure both parents breathed a sigh of relief when I finally quit growing!
Both parents have been dead for years but I will never forget the sacrifices they made so both my brother and I could have what we needed, and sometimes the extra special items too.
Marcia, I have similar memories. We were never aware of the tight budget our parents had to deal with. Never heard money talk. (I imagine that was for their private times.) My Mother and Dad both believed in quality rather than quantity. We had good sturdy shoes for the school year and I got something more girly for Easter along with a new Easter dress. Mom took beautiful care of everything, including Dad’s dress shirts. My clothes were in such good condition, that Mom sent many of my outgrown things to my Dad’s sister in the East who was raising her orphaned granddaughter..
We always felt so well taken care of. And I never heard whining, complaining, dissatisfaction…
Mom was a world class homemaker and cook. She was frugal with food without our realizing it.
I enjoyed reading your reply. So much of it could have been mine including the belated appreciation for all that they did for us. Their selfless love. (And yes, those new school supplies had a wonderful smell!)
All my professors at Indiana U. (Accounting courses) would highly recommend NOT using a calculator for assignments or tests. Reason: if you were planning on taking the CPA exam you’d be out of luck. NO calculators allowed. Plenty of very sharp pencils and a large eraser were all that were allowed in the testing room. PERIOD!!
If you got dependent on a calculator you’d be in trouble at exam time. On to graduate school we all had the HP business programmable calculator. I had to learn out to use a ten-key machine on my first accounting job.
Too right
We had arithmetic, mental arithmetic in primary school.
In high school we still had these AND maths
I can add,multiply and subtract in my head without paper.
I taught myself some tricks to do that easily
I’ll bet you learned with flash cards!! We wore those out….. but being able to multiply up to 10×10 soon gave way to 20×20. Then on to ‘gozintas’…..six gozinta 12 twice. .. In 7th grade we got into geometry and our teacher had cards for that, then trig cards next year. Our geometry teacher hosted a ‘slide rule’ class each Tuesday. I think it was during home room….. he always had a candy bar for the winner of that days competition. I used my dads six inch Post, then got my first 10″ K&E that traveled on to high school, then engineering college and beyond. At $395, in grad school, I could not afford a TI or an HP calculator…. slide rule and paper.
Good memories.
School supply lists. I had no idea kids had to provide for their own supplies.
Many decades ago when I started school, 1957, living in Oildale, CA, schools were still funded by local property taxes. Virtually all the land around Oildale was owned by Standard Oil. We had a tax base of almost $1M per kid per year.
No classroom had more than 20 kids. Every classroom had a TV. Every classroom had 2 teachers. All supplies were provided by the school. Every kid learned how to read, do math, etc.
Every Friday was Fun Friday. We either watched films (Heidi, etc) or went on field trips. Field trips often started about 7 am and we went as far as the Mission in Santa Barbara. We went several times per year to the Museum of Natural History in LA (La Brea Tar Pits) and didn’t get home to after 10 at night.
We had an auditorium for assemblies and such and it included an orchestra pit that both raised and lowered. I recieved my cello in third grade from the school and kept it until I graduated from 8th grade. Mr Hartman was our orchestra conductor and that was his only job, teaching music. We also Had Mr. Grubbs, our band leader who exclusively taught band. We also had a chorale director who tried to tach us to sing though I can’t recall her name.
Wednesdays were library days where we would learn how to research topics we were interested in. I recall vividly our teachers telling us it was not their job to teach us what to think, rather it was their job to tach us how to think critically.
Oildale was definitely not a rich town, mostly lower middle class.
I had no idea it was/is so very different for others.
If your town had a 1 million tax base per student because of standard oil then regardless of the parents financial positions it was a rich district.
My parents were low middle class when I was growing up. I went to school in a middle class school district. We occasionally had field trips but none of the rest of what you had.
Standard Oil was awesome to Oildale. They donated all the land for all the schools, usually 5-10 acre parcels. They stipulated in the deeds that as long as the land was used for schools or public parks it was free but could be used for no other purposes.
Usually half of the parcel was for the school and the other half was a public park, complete with really nice play grounds and some with pools and lifeguards.
To answer your response directly, yes, we had a very rich district. It all went away when public school funding quit being solely local sometime in the 70s if I recall correctly.
“The ability to think logically and analytically is a crucial skill, and we need it.”
I recently asked a Fry’s employee (they sell groceries here in AZ) to find the BB or Use By or Sell By date on a package of hamburger buns–my eyes aren’t so good these days. He found a number (hard to see) and said a year. In shock, I asked him to please check with someone else which he went off and did. Came back and said “a year” so I took the package up to Customer Service and the girl found that it basically said the rest of the month.
How could ANYONE (especially working in a grocery store) believe that bread would last a year (outside of a freezer)??? But two employees did.
Scott Adams stated last year that a lot of people recently are “unable to evaluate things”. I agree that this is the crisis. It describes the large number of people who believe that Pres. Trump said that drinking bleach could cure COVID.
In honor of that, my Twitter profile description is simply “Able to evaluate things”.
Before I retired I noticed – once meetings replaced working – the computer savvy young crowd could do pretty much anything on a computer … except make a decision.
“Unable to evaluate things” is a very polite way to say, “Dumb as rocks”.
Not to mention the young people who run a cash register who cannot count back change
That’s why cash registers in fast food restaurants have pictures.
Yikes, I didn’t know that!
Why isnt it standardized? My pet peeve. It should be on the upper right side of a product. P.E.R.I.O.D.
Calculators are a crutch!?
My HS math teacher always said that a PENCIL is a crutch for a crippled mind.
a PENCIL!!!!
So what did he use, his nose?
brain and voice box.
Not fair if it was really a photographic memory though…
BTW … here in Gavin Newsom land?
EVERY CHILD … regardless of financial need receives FREE breakfast and lunch at school every day.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/07/19/california-free-school-lunch-program-united-states/8021379002/
And EVERY child in all of the *cough-cough* … underserved communities receives a FREE backpack including everything on the list … including a FREE Google tablet
You’d almost come to think that “parents” are just incidental, extraneous, chaperones. Oh wait! Not even that … because of FREE school busses.
Oh! And PS … even with all that FREE shit? Even FREE preschool … The test scores keep dropping … plummeting … as do HS graduation rates. Thanks teachers UNIONISTAS
The problem is not only the teachers unions, it is educational theory. We are told that students no longer need to learn the divisional algorithm because they have calculators. Teachers are taught to stupidly stick to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, despite the fact that there are no “lower order thinking skills”, just different brain regions. Consequently, students’ brains are left poorly trained.
The push recently has been to dumb everything down in order to achieve equity for minorities and women. Everyone suffers at the hands of the advocates of ignorance. Instead of real, useful knowledge, we get woke culture and critical race theory.
Another thing, American test scores are not going to get better by importing millions of people across the Southern border. These students are starting out with a poor education, and they don’t even speak the language. As long as we keep the borders open, test scores will remain low.
Correct … dumbed down to the lowest common denominator … which is then defined as “the norm”.
In the 70’s & 80’s our children watched limited TV – with our permission- only on the weekends … and we didn’t have cable until around 1986 … even that limited exposure was influencing as evidenced by the fact that my youngest spelled legs on an English paper – leggs – per the pantyhose commercial.
The filth that is poisoning young minds today is unimaginable.
Also defined as “new Democrat voter”.
Did something similar except we only allowed them to watch two movies on Sunday afternoon/evening. Each of our two got to pick one. We’d stop at Blockbuster on the way hoem from Church. They had to learn to negotiate with each other to get two movies both could watch. The movies had to pass muster with us also.
Is free lunch still available all summer in Oakland?
Yes, of course. And the schools administer the free food. Because teachers don’t have enough to do
Some school districts have added dinner and every day during the summer.
This is nothing more than a hidden tax imposed on school aged parents. In fact in our school the list includes cleaning supplies, paper towel, tissues, and “community” supplies! “Community” supplies are for the illegal students that have invaded our school. They pay ZERO taxes into the school district. They refuse to buy their own supplies. They will all receive free lunch. They receive no user fee’s for band or sports. The free free free ride through American on the backs of the 18% who actually pay taxes!! This country has a day of justice coming down the track that will be epic!
Well home schooling fixes almost all of those issues! Seriously, ink cartridges…
My girls had those lists in Texas, late ‘80’s…….no lists for supplies when we moved back to western NC, early ‘90’s
I hated them too and being a working mom back then it was tough to get it all together w/o lotsa anxiety!!!
So glad mine are grown and not facing our present national mess as young citizens
The cost of a college PDF textbook these days!
Khan Academy gives Youtube tutorials on many subjects now–Maths Scince, Biology etc
And its free
When I was in elementary school, I never knew there were any other pencils than #2. When I finally hit jr. High and saw art class had different numbered pencils for different things, I knew then I wasn’t going to be an artist.
I have fond memories of being the first computer club president in my Jr. high school. Our Apple 2+ was cutting edge. Green screen and all.
I began to like using mechanical pencils in Jr. high and into high school because you didn’t have to sharpen them.
Does anyone remember doodling on their huge pink eraser with your bic?
Our HS was in a rough part of town. North Long Beach bordering Compton back in the late 80’s was the subject of many rap music albums. I was class of 88. Warren G (rapper) was class of 89. Cameron Diaz attended our district rival, Poly HS. Yep, for those who know Southern California, I went to Jordan HS. Crazy times indeed.
I only started using a computer in my early 40s!
And elementary at that.
The country I lived in then, wasnt using/importing them
Since then I have emigrated twice to countries where things were a bit more modern where I taught myself
I’m a baby boomer who started Kindergarten in 1955. At that time elementary schools provided all the supplies students would need. We had real spelling work books, arithmetic work books that were our own. The only thing we took to school was our lunch boxes and a nickel to buy our carton of milk. In Junior High and High School, we had to buy our own 2 inch ring binders, college rule paper, pens, #2 pencils, ruler and protractor. Workbooks were still supplied by the school. We also had to buy a PE uniform and a set of sweats.
It was before the time of calculators but I did learn how to use various adding machines in my business classed in High School. They were big a bulky and not something affordable for home use. I did get a used typewriter to practice on at home. Have no idea where my grandmother found it but was thankful for it.
It seems teachers back then had one interest and that was teaching children to be the best they could be. They were the last to leave school, often staying to help a student who was having a problem. They had to have the patience of saints dealing with over crowded classrooms that ran 40+ kids per class. My graduating class was over 900. My cousin’s class at a different school was over 1000 the year before.
It was when my children started school that the supply lists began. Thankfully, the supplies were generic, no brand names of things. The calculator issue came up when they started Middle School and those had to have specific keys. Trying to find affordable ones was the test since I needed 3 of them. Of course, beginning in Middle School they had to have back packs every year to carry all their books and supplies back and forth since they weren’t allowed to leave anything in their lockers overnight.
Public schools are so busy telling kids what to think that there’s no time to teach them how to think. When I was a kid in Catholic school, (no tuition back then), we each had a coffee can with art supplies brought from home. My mom decoupaged bunnies from a magazine on the outside. One of eleven, we couldn’t afford Elmer’s glue so she made flour and water paste. It worked fine but smelled rank after awhile. 🙂 Never had lists in public school for our daughter, now 37, but she does with her boys. Includes classroom supplies like tissues, despite ever increasing school budgets. Crazy.
Our town pays roughly 13k per year to send our students to the elementary school. That is more expensive than most of the local private schools, parochial or secular. We choose to homeschool. Even with big budget items that we reuse over the course of many years (printers, computers, really nice science equipment) we couldn’t possibly spend more than 1500. That includes textbooks, reading books (library is just too difficult), building sets, curriculum dvds, foreign language subscriptions, art supplies (good ones, not just markers and crayons). Actually after the few big purchases we probably don’t go over $500 and I consider myself a really big spender, I know I could do more on a shoestring, but I don’t. I just can’t see how at 13k per student they can’t provide *the Best* for every student. So many things can be shared among a few students so there isn’t a need to purchase everything for everyone. Those lists are just ridiculous. When I was a kid in public school I had a trapper keeper that I reused for about 4 years and some pencils and crayons for school. Everything else stayed at home, and the school supplied everything else. All I needed in high school was a binder for each subject, some notebook paper, a plain calculator, geometry tools, and pens/pencils. Nothing else is really needed. It’s all just for show.
“Black Warrior” pencils? Ohhhhh, that is sooo rayciss!
And the wide lined pad of writing paper with the big Indian Head on the front.
🙂 And the big jack handle sized pencils. AND a bottle of ink and a refillable pen. We learned to write script making lots of repetitive ‘O’s and lines and the rest…Spencerian I think. What was the other method, Palmer?
Geez, I loved getting new supplies, but it was a “school box” (cigar box with a fancy covering), pencils, crayons, binder, and a pack of paper. I started to school overseas, and my parents were a bit surprised that their six-year-old needed a fountain pen, as italic, rather than cursive, was taught there. My Algebra 2 teacher, rest her dear soul, did NOT permit calculators in the classroom, for which I bless her daily. And I could perform grad-level statistics on a four-function calculator. Why middle school kids need a fancy graphing calculator is beyond me. But I’m just an old forget, I guess
Sundance is correct about critical thinking. It hasn’t been taught for several decades. Kids memorize and emote and they get an A. The only thing I got and carried with me throughout life was the ability to critically think. I had to take World History and World Literature with those great big thick books. The mid term and final exams were one or two questions. You had to use what you had learned and create some BS to support your answer.
The only thing I had to take to school was myself and my lunch; but then, I’m old.
Yes, because we had school lockers.
And in the fall we took our rifles or shotguns to school so we could get off the bus on the way home and walk several miles, hunting squirrels or grouse. During trapping season, the hip boots were added to the gun of choice. We checked with the principal and he’d put them in the gun rack. Our school bus driver let us keep some behind his seat on the bus. One afternoon with a few kids left on the bus a red fox made his way across a field as we were driving in to drop off a girl. She had a 16ga shotgun and got the first shot….and missed. Bus driver got it with a .22-.250 and let her keep it. $5 bounty and about $10 for the hide. Yep, we were terrorists….. 🙂
Is there a school supply industrial complex? Better millions of parents pay full retail prices than the school get bulk purchase deep discounts? This is a scam. What happened to reusing supplies from last year?
Those same people protesting plastic straws are the same ones saying every child deserves a ‘pink flamingo’ color crayon.
Colors of the World – Skin tone crayons
Here are the 24 new Colors of the World released in 2020. They are currently in a 168 count box of crayons. Only time will tell if they get included in a standard box of Crayola crayons for good. almond, golden and rose. I have no idea what the extra, light, very, medium, deep, deepest signify. They could signify tertiary and the secondary color spectrum.
Crayon colors in Colors of the World
I agree. What really irked me was you would spend $200 on all this stuff and then they never really used it. My second huge complaint, was that they would start in on how all the “under” privileged (think illegals) did not have money to buy supplies and we should buy for them. This on top of the fact, they were getting a bus ride to school, free meals, and the churches were providing coats and backpacks. I would not put my kid in any public school today. Between their CRT and sex Ed they have no time to teach.
As near as I can tell, kids today are taught that they will be tested on exactly what their teachers prepare them to be tested on. Anything outside of those cones, and it’s not pretty. Complaining starts immediately about the unfairness of the test.
In an engineering course I took in college, the prof’s statement was clear: to get a 100% on one of his tests, you were going to have to learn something new while taking the exam. You could certainly get an A without learning whatever was needed, but not 100%.
Our parents gave us our tools to cope with life. Algebra was the teachers’ job…And Latin…And the sciences (mine were physical as I wanted to be a doctor from age 5 or so)….
My wife teaches elementary school in the People’s Republic of UNIONISTA driven Oakland, CA.
Her poor pupils (90% of her class) used to be able to share the community pool of school supplies my wife was able to get donated to her classroom. But NO MORE. Nope. COVID. No children may share the crayolas … or anything else. You see … it’s WORSE than even the masks. Now kids cannot share anything. Think of the life lessons THAT’S teaching the kids
Nice job leftists … you’ve succeeded … in the devolution of mankind. Even worse than simply killing off America.
When I went to school, there was no supply list. Everything we needed was supplied by the school. Of course, we had no teachers unions in those days, either.
You are so right.
I went to school with a pencil, a ruler and an eraser (lol was going to say rubber!) in primary school.
You used a cloth hankie which you washed in salt water every day.
Later in high school, I had to have a compass, a pen, ruler, eraser, colouring pencils and protractor for maths and exercise books.
I borrowed books to read from the local library and the school library and read voraciously.
I was the best read kid in my school.
At the age of 7 I had read every book in the junior school library.
Ditto later.
We studied classical authors and learnt the meaning of words from the text.
No dictionary or thesaurus-that was done in spelling and grammar as separate subjects.
We used log books and later a slide rule for maths and physicis.
That was it.
I got Dux every year and was accepted to med school.
And I tell an anecdote-years later in my thirties, this all stood me in good stead when I visited family in the UK and played British Trivial Pursuits.
The other players were a UK Oxford educated teacher, another doctor and an Oxford educated barrister and their wives.
I beat them all, especially on English Lit, History, Science, Biology and Geography.
The entertainment nonsense I didnt know much about!
LOL!
An old fashioned classic education is what our kids need, not this modern woke and computer based drivel.
This is all nonsense
These extras do not help kids learn smarter.
I read all this stuff about math — something went haywire in my personal fam gene pool. Dad was a civil engineering student b4 he went into accounting/finance. I went 4 yrs to college w/no math or science course at all. Became a tax lawyer doing basic arithmetic. Did algebra, albegra2, geometry/Trig in HS. Barely passed. My son has an MS in financial math. What gives?
Never used a calculator and I easily got through college level physics, atmospheric physics, meteorology 1, 2 and 3. Basic math, college level math, severe weather physics and dynamics. BTW, I am not good at math but my love for meteorology is what drove me to excel and I did.
A plastic flute for music class was on the school supply list in grade school..
Oh yes, I remember. It was called a Tonette.
I walked uphill both ways to school everyday in a snowstorm. In northern Michigan.
I started college at 49 and took a math class. Instructor wanted every one to buy expensive devices. I passed with an A I had a one dollar calculator that I never needed to use. You see when I went to school teachers taught. Can you imagine that.
We homeschool, and I keep joking that it’s because we can’t afford a “free” public education. Except that it’s not really a joke. I think most years we have done a year of homeschooling for three children for about $600 total, and most of that is for the end-of-year testing. It does get more expensive in high school, but apparently it does in public school too. I think my public-schooling friends think I’m exaggerating how little our school costs, but it’s amazing how much useful educational material there is out there for free. (In particular, friends who are done homeschooling have given us a lot of free stuff.)
I recall seeing, but can’t document, where someone obtained a test, from the 1800’s, that 8th graders needed to pass, in order to matriculate.
They gave the test to a group of college graduates; not one could pass it.
As a teenager, in the early 60’s, I delivered papers, and read the paper every day.
Because I was attending school, one article stood out; “Americas Public Schools get failing grade” was the headline.
And, because that article stuck in my mind, I noticed every ten years orso, when virtually the same article was printed, again.
To do the same thing, over and over, expecting different results, is a pretty good definition of insanity.
I don’t remember getting much supplies when I went to school, but I remember get new clothes! Highlight of the year. My kids went to a private Catholic school all through elementary and middle school and then to a Catholic high school. We always had to buy supplies every year. Luckily, a lot of things were general, like spiral notebooks and composition books. I would wait for those sales where things were cheap and I would buy a bunch, since I had to buy for three. In high school I had to buy their books too so I got really good at finding used books online and hoping the teachers didn’t change the books from one kid to the next. When they were in college, it was lots and lots of engineering paper (which they used) and expensive engineering books ( which they didn’t use a lot of the time) Ended up with two mechanical engineers and one civil engineer so I guess they learned their math, lol!
Menagerie, when I was in school in Southern California in the First Ice Age, elementary school kids got all new stuff on the first day of school… and I don’t remember a shopping list when we went on to junior high and high school, although there were sometimes special textbooks in high school. The first day of school was exciting because I loved all the new stuff. New wood rulers with a metal edge. New #2 pencils. New pink erasers. Wonderful new crayons and watercolor paint boxes. My idea of heaven. (I still love stationery stores, office supplies, paper…all that stuff. And, of course, books and libraries.)
At the start of a school year all a student needs is something to write on, and something to write with. Everything else can be filled in, as needed.
School supply lists should be taken as a “these are the materials your student will need at certain points this school period” list. The exotic items should come with expected use dates, based on the teacher’s plan of instruction.
I was in logistics in the military, and even we didn’t order office supplies 6 months in advance, we bought it as we needed it. When I was supporting units I would keep a storage locker with common use stuff, like pens and staples, but anything else I bought it as I needed it.
Two more years until the last of 6 finishes high school. The “innovation” I have not cared for with the last 2 was when teachers started putting huge amounts of items on the list (Ex: 100 or 120 Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils). On the first day, they would pool everyone’s supplies with the teacher, who would dole them out as needed during the year. The purpose was so that kids who couldn’t afford supplies wouldn’t be embarrassed.
In fact, many kids who COULD afford supplies didn’t buy them after they learned the teacher doled them out. Kids who couldn’t afford supplies still had to show up empty handed on day one. Kids who didn’t get to use the special mechanical pencil they chose resented the kid who got it. And parents still had to do the ritual of chasing down the pens with the ultra-fine tip and pay retail.
IMHO, if all supplies are going to be property of the commune, the least the schools could do is collect a school supply fee, buy the specific items the teacher wants at wholesale, and ACTUALLY eliminate the stigma to the child whose parents couldn’t afford to pay the fee.
the reason for multiples of the same items is to provide for the kids whose parents didn’t provide any.
Plyler v. Doe. (1982)
It went from working parents having to buy school supplies for those that did not, to the Miscarriage of Justice SCOTUS decision, that ALL EDUCATION COST must be provided to Illegal Alien Invader Foreign Nationals.
Ah, Menagerie, once again I cannot join as I don’t qualify.
Were there any school supply lists for Wicked Son? No idea. Never checked, never knew, would have ignored them anyway had I known.
I always hated the end of summer. I so enjoyed the time off with Wicked Son. We had so much fun together. Doing the garden from beginning to end was always fun, then moving out-of-town making cider with our own apples, canning the peaches, making jams, jellies, dill green beans, etc., and so much more.
School supply lists? Huh. Who knew?
Does no one ask the teacher WHY all these things are needed? All these specific things?
A notebook is a notebook, a pencil is a pencil . . .
And why are parents being asked to fund teacher supplies? Who on the school baord needs to be kicked to the curb for misuse – if not theft – of funds? Who on the county commission needs to be drawn and quartered for not doing the job correctly? Who on the local paper needs to be outed as “anti-education” because they fail in their duty to report such issues?
At my son’s private school last year he needed pencils, pen, notebook, ruler, compass, protractor, calculator and kjv Bible.
Why should parents buy any supplies for school when the athletic program, specifically the FOOTBALL team, doesn’t have to buy anything for their precious *star athlete children*. Hell, you’ve got band/drill team kids going door-to-door begging for money (candy sales/car washes/et al) to support those football bums. I say send your kid to school with nothing and have your kid point the finger at the illegal mexican kid and demand that they pay for everything since they’re robbing the schools with their presence.
I am old enough to remember in elementary school, the local bank gave out book covers. We each got ONE lined tablet and a #2 pencil per marking period. I don’t recall Mom and Dad having to buy school supplies for us back then, unless it was something that we wanted.