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Thursday, August 05, 2021

The Dreaded School Supply Lists

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.
-WiscoDave

13 comments:

  1. Incredible! I would tell the teacher that we will NOT knuckle under to the tyranny of the teacher.

    My first computer was for a math class which was more like an engineering course. Even then, the device was used only selectively. Rules, scales, compasses, protractors, triangles, those where the stuff of learning. I agree, any personal electronic device before upper high school is nothing but a crutch and to allow substandard teaching. Learning button pushing is a poor substitute for knowing formulas and such.

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  2. These lists are simply a way to transfer costs to parents for things the school budget should be providing.

    Tell 'em no. I'll buy pencils, paper, some other stuff, but the endless list of specific brands? Nope. Crayons? sure. Specifically some exact box of one brand only- no f'ing way. Sue me.

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  3. Back in simpler times it was: A 3-ring binder, a pack of lined paper, a couple of #2 pencils, a ballpoint and some brown paper bags to cover the school books.

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    1. And a bottle of white paste to eat when you got hungry.
      Daryl

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    2. We're not in simpler times anymore....

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    3. Don't forget the rubber cement to make fake boogers to flick at people when you're bored.

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  4. My kid brought home a list that included 500 note cards. When I asked why so many, I was told they were for the black kids who didnt have any. Communists!

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    1. Neal Boortz used to say every year that the school supplies process was the kid's first lesson about socialism.

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  5. I graduated high school in 1978, so that tells you about when I went to elementary school. The first time I actually had a list to follow for school supplies was in my first college class. I took one class, an English 101 class at our community college. I had to buy 3 books, for about 100$. One we used steadily, a different one we opened one class period. The third one, we never touched. I was not a happy person.
    I went to turn it in for cash, and was offered a third of what I paid for it. I was pissed, but it was not the bookstore workers fault, and I didn't pass my anger along to them. But people cannot understand just why higher education costs so much. Mind you, this was at a local community college, and even though the credits did transfer to any accredited full time college, they still didn't have to screw the students like that.
    Michigan, back in around 1972 started the lottery, with it going to the voters, the only way that they got it to pass was with the understanding that the money raised would go to education. And every cent does actually go to education. What they failed to mention was that with the lottery giving money to education, they now simply appropriate less money from the general fund to education, so there is no net gain, they can just use money that used to go to education and put it elsewhere. And then they wonder why we passed term limits. That was the best thing that Michigan taxpayers ever did, by the way. You know it was a good move, when the politicians complain.

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    1. I'm a wee bit older than you. One college class featured a dick professor who stated on the first day, we will be using the 4th edition. If you have the 3rd edition you will automatically fail the course. Yep, he wrote the book for the class. But we hardly ever opened the book. Reselling as used was worth $10. For a $48 book when new.

      In grade school, we paid $0.02 for 10 pieces of lined paper. $0.05 for one of those fat pencils that would last the whole year.

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  6. Surprised that the supplies list hasn't been Highjacked to be approved by LGBTQ, Antifa, BLM etc. ad nauseum. Good comrade scouts get the rainbow binder. Ohio Guy

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  7. I went Engineering school in the early 80's and by then programmable calculators like the HP-41C were around but we were not allowed to use them in any pure math course. They were allowed in engineering courses like statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics etc. My Calc 3 prof said it wouldn't do you any good anyway.

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  8. 1st grade in 1952. On list was box of crayons. My mother bought one for my older sister, one for me. 8 or 12, I don't remember. First day, teacher tells us to get out crayons. Couple of kids pull out big boxes with 24 or 36 crayons. My thought: I didn't know God made that many colors.

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