Dear Teachers.....

[Sarlon]

I remember back in school we had to supply our paper, pens/pencils, comp books for language arts, backpacks, folders. But books were assigned the first day of class not bought.

Recently though its making me more and more glad I don't have any children...school is being a wreck! There thankfully is a program around here that supplies a brand new set of clothes, backpack and all the trimmings for low income familys....something like 1200 children around our area.I donate what I can when I have the money cause I know a few friends who have school age children that are starting this year.

[Racket_Man]

WOW

In grade school back in the late 60's and early 70's the school provided most of the basic supplies such as writing paper (I guess so we all used the same), pencils (or we could buy them for like a penny), had tons of crayons and colored pencils laying around, etc. the school did provide the textbooks (really used of course even in a Catholic school)

In high school we did have to buy things like pens and pencils (any old kind like cheap BIC pens), notebook and anyother supplies needed like for art class.

in college yup had to buy EVERYTHING down to paperclips

when my daughter got to grade school in the mid 90's things had CHANGED A LOT. parents were expected to buy almost every supply like pens, pencils, notebooks, sissors, brushes, crayons, glue, colored construction paper, poster boards, push pins, staples, paper clips (no I am not kidding), etc. at least the school provided the textbooks.

at the highschool level we still had to purchase all of the above items PLUS whatever each individual teacher/class required PLUS we had to BUY textbooks. now this was not an deprived school district. the area was well off (not super rich but well off). Thank GOD I found a decent job right before the beginning of the school year. the first year's bill for textbooks was like $150 or $175 and that was with buying USED books.

[EricKei]

I find this entire post ridiculous. The day the teachers ask me to buy scantron sheets is the day I put on my new steel toed boots and....well, you get the idea.

Ah, perhaps I should have clarified...mea culpa

We could buy all of these things, any day we wished, from the bookstore, for the lower of the two prices listed. The higher price was only for the inevitable dumbasses who failed to do so. I have *NEVER* seen the bookstore sell out of any of those items, either. Personally, I always got mine at the bookstore the first week of class (enough to last all semester) and just kept them in my desk at home.

It was NEVER mandatory to buy these things from the teacher...but if you didn't get one from the store (with several weeks', if not months', warning), you had little choice -- it was either that, or miss out on half of the test time trying to get one from the store on time.

[BookstoreEscapee]

On a related note: If you assign a book that the students have to go out and purchase, give the local bookstore a call and warn them...or better yet, ask if you can order enough for the class under your name and have the store hold them for the kids to come in and buy a copy. (B&N does that. It makes things so much easier.) Otherwise, the first few kids will get one and everyone else has to order it.

I always had to bring pens/pencils, notebooks, folders, etc. I never got lists of specific supplies, though. Also never had to buy my own books (at least not until college), but I saw it more and more at the bookstore that high school kids would have to buy a novel (plus there were summer reading assignments, which I never had to do, either). Usually we had no idea that a particular book was assigned until several kids had come in looking for it, and then we'd try to find out how many kids were in the class so we could estimate how many extras we should order. In college I had to buy all my books, and everything else, of course, but I never had to supply my own bluebooks or scantron sheets.

I'm kinda surprised kids would be asked to bring in scissors (in this day and age, and all...)

[TexasT]

On a related note: If you assign a book that the students have to go out and purchase, give the local bookstore a call and warn them...or better yet, ask if you can order enough for the class under your name and have the store hold them for the kids to come in and buy a copy. (B&N does that. It makes things so much easier.) Otherwise, the first few kids will get one and everyone else has to order it.

This reminds me of in college, when I worked at the college library. We had a way for professors to take a book or video and place it on a special category. Like, for example, students can only check out 2 hours and it can't leave the library or students can only check it out overnight. Otherwise, books could be checked out for 3 weeks for students and all semester for professors. Videos were 1 week for students and all semester for professors. It never failed that some professor or two every semester would tell all their students to read a certain book in the library without arranging anything with us. So we get to deal with the student screaming at us that we're making them fail because some professor decided to check out the book for the semester. Of course, the students also usually waited until the last minute as well.

[Ree]

This thread was NOT started in order to discuss whether schools should be supplying all these items, nor was it started to discuss the budget cuts in the educational system, nor any other fratching type issue.

Those who have been on this board for a while should be able to recognize the difference, but obviously can't, since this thread has already taken a sharp turn and veered right into fratching.

Get it back on track, or take it to fratching, or this one's getting closed.