First, a huge thank you to Jane for linking to me yesterday and sending some readers my way. Also, for being so helpful and kind to me via e-mail. I really appreciate it.
Second, this entry might come off as a bitchy rant about the price of my children’s school supplies. It is not. My husband Alex and I budget for back to school supplies and clothes every year so it isn’t a big shock. It is however a bitchy rant of another kind.
Nathan and Polly go back to school on the same day, Sept.6th. I just got their school supply lists, making it difficult for me to shop in advance during the actual sales that go on throughout August, but I did pick up some things I knew they would need, paper, pens, pencils, etc.
When I finally received their lists I was shocked by both of them for different reasons. Polly is staring middle school at a new school; Nathan is starting high school for the first time.
Polly’s list was a full page long, and no, the type wasn’t large. It included all the regular things, in huge quantities i.e. 24 glue sticks. I can’t imagine why she’ll need so many, but I bought them, instructing her to keep some at home.
Some other notable items on her list: a first aid kit, two boxes of Band-Aids, an extension cord, a power strip, a sharp pair of large scissors and four boxes of Kleenex. I am not sure why each child needs their own first aid kit, but maybe when you mix the power strip with the extension cord, 24 glue sticks and a sharp pair of large scissors that equals one first aid kit.
I also fail to comprehend why each child needs 200 band aids. Let’s say there are 30 kids per class, 200 Band-Aids per child, which means they are planning for 6000 cuts and scrapes in a 180 day school year, or approximately 33 per day, per classroom. Also the Kleenex. There are 150 tissues in each box multiplied by four equals 600 tissues per kid. Multiply that number by 30 kids and that means they expect to have 18,000 occasions for the kids to blow their noses in 180 days, or 1000 Kleenex needed per classroom each day. That’s a lot of snot.
Some other notables, a soccer ball or basketball, a native plant ID book, oil paint, water color paint, acrylic paint and 2000 sheets of copy paper for the Xerox machine in the office. Now that one I believe because I know from day one I will be hit with an onslaught of paper that must be read and signed by the next day.
Polly eyed her list, looked at my face to test my reaction, and then said, “Well, I guess I am going to learn a lot at my school.”
If that’s the case, that the quantity of school supplies needed directly reflects the amount of learning by any one child at any given school then Nate’s list is the one I should be worried about. Here it is, in its entirety.
2 pencils
2 pens
Notebook paper
1 pencil pouch
WTF? This is high school? He read his list, rolled his eyes, said the by now obligatory “Whatever” and walked off to worry about more important things, like having the right Adidas.
' August 29th, 2006 at 01:37pm 8 comments
Heh! ok, that last was funny. I hear ya on the school supply lists – it seems here in our State they are supplementing the budget by having all the kids bring enough for a classroom. I got the same thing in elementary school: tons of glue sticks, first aid kit, etc. Now the book, power strip, extension cord, etc. THAT is astounding. Did you have a school levy fail, and they’re getting back at everyone?
Well we did have the additional county tax http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/tax/questions-individual.shtml
which was supposed to take care of money for schools but it just seems that no matter how much money they get or how many schools they close they never have enough money. I have the feeling that the reason the list was so large this year is they assume only some of the students will bring all of the items so they need to make up the difference. It was still a bit of a shock.
It’s a good school though; very artsy and I think my daughter will have a great time.
I have to echo the other Jane. I think they are making up for lack of funding. Even at my ritzy public school with the carpeted gym, each family has to bring something for mid-morning snack. SNACKS! And they don’t allow cookies, which is a travesty. And they didn’t even try to hide that they were pooling the supplies..there were a bunch of bins at Back to School Night into which we were instructed to sort all our stuff , except the pencil box and the pencils.
Are you sure they sent home the correct list? My son started eighth grade and didn’t even have a list. We attended orientation night and all his teachers told the children they could more or less choose whatever notebook they liked best. None of the teachers had a specific request except the math teacher. His required materials were much like your sons. I still have a drawer full of school supplies from last year that he never used! I will save these for my grandchildren to do art or draw whenever they’re here.
Plain Jane, I hate calling you that. Anyway, I am guessing they are going to pool the supplies. I wish they would let us know. Polly wants to write her name on her things. When my son was in second grade the teacher wrote a letter asking for $50 from each parent and she did the shopping.
I know what you mean about the snacks. I went through that every year until my daughter hit fifth grade and her teacher said, “We have no time for snack. Eat breakfast and lunch” I was glad because it got expensive, a lot of it was wasted and yep! No cookies. Not even on my children’s birthdays. I had to hand out stickers and pencils and carrot sticks or something else healthy. Nothing says Happy Birthday like a carrot.
Someone like you,
It’s good to see you back. Yeah, I called to make sure that was the right list and they said yes. I am guessing different teachers might specify certain things later. I don’t know. It’s a bit tough because all of the sales are now and I’d like to know.
Just for you!
A New Yorker cartoon this week – 9/04:
A wife is saying goodbye to her husband as he leaves for work:
“It’s almost back to school time. Steal some office supplies.”
xox
Cazzy, I will look for that one. Thank you for pointing it out!