I think we stopped using crayons after first grade, but maybe we were just less graphically oriented in the olden days. :dubious:
And that’s how it should go. And that is how I expected it to go. That’s why for the first 4-5 years I held up my end of the bargain. I have zero problem helping out kids who truly need it, but unfortunately there are parents who shirk their own responsibilities because they know other people will provide. And I think there are some teachers who go overboard to make sure the students who didn’t contribute don’t feel bad, so they get the good stuff first.
It was more than a fluke, it became a pattern.
Whatever. That is their issue. But my child is going to have a decent pencil everyday, so I knew I had to send basic supplies with him on a daily basis.
When the system of pooled supplies is managed correctly it can work, because most parents will participate if they see it is fair and their kid has everything they need everyday. If not, as in my family’s case, more parents quit participating which makes the problem worse. But we couldn’t convince our school system of that.
I hope my experience is an anomaly.
Long-repressed memory dredged up: Boston, with the O’s more oval than circular, and tilted to the right, while the rest of the letters were vertical.
My pet peeve is the teachers whose individual supply lists differ substantially from their district’s “standard” supply list for each grade. Didn’t happen to us this year (but did in a previous year), but based on the parental venting I saw in a FB page for parents in the district, it happened quite a bit in the higher grades.
On a tangentially-related note:
It annoys the hell out of me that some of the kids who bring in a travel pack of tissues and a personal-size bottle of hand sanitizer (when the list clearly specified full-size), have parents who don’t hesitate to buy cartons of cigarettes, cases of beer, multiple tattoos… but can’t be bothered with supplying their child at school. I’ve personally seen it with parents of three of my daughter’s classmates since Kindergarten.
ETA: Make no mistake - my annoyance is **not **with the kids, it’s with their POS parents. Kids don’t get to choose their parents, they’re just stuck with the situation they were born into.
One mother pulled a gun on another at a Walmart in Michigan ina fight over the last spiral notebook.