Back to school shopping

Father David Epps's picture

Way back when I started first grade — these were the days before parents packed their kids off to day care, preschool, pre-kindergarten, or kindergarten — I recall needing a 3-ring binder, a few pencils, and notebook paper. We didn’t even need a pencil holder for the notebook, but my mom made sure I had one anyway. That was it.

Oh, we went to Sears and bought school clothes, of course, but that’s the extent of supplies needed that were expected to be provided by the parents.

It was free, public education, you see. Of course, everybody knew it wasn’t actually free because somebody paid for the “free” education and the payment was extracted in the form of taxes. No one really complained because the “free” education was generally a good one and rich and poor alike could go to the same schools and expect the same education. They were also expected to bring a 3-ring binder, a few pencils, and notebook paper.

However, all this seems to have changed. Recently a couple in my church, who have five children, were lamenting about all the school supplies they were expected to purchase for their kids before school starts next week.

I thought, “What’s the big deal? Even for five kids how much can a 3-ring binder, a few pencils, and notebook paper cost?” Then they gave me a partial list of what they were expected to supply in order to obtain their “free and public” education.

The first-grade list looks like this:

Book bag

2 (3-pronged, front and back pocket) purple plastic folders for weekly parent communication

3 packs of regular glue sticks

2 spiral bound notebooks (70 count wide-ruled)

2 rolls of paper towels

3 boxes of tissues

2 packs of #2 yellow pencils

2 bottles of hand sanitizer (regular size bottles)

Plastic folders, 3 prongs, with front and back pocket in these colors:
(2 of each color)
orange, yellow, red, green, blue

1 box snack size Ziplock bags

1 box of gallon size Ziplock bags

6 pack of bathroom tissue

The fifth-grade list expects all these items to be supplied by the parents:

8 clip folders with pockets

1 set colored pencils/markers

Pencil box

#2 pencils

Fine point black Sharpie marker

Yellow highlighter

Notebook paper

1 large eraser

Glue stick

Kleenex

Paper towels

Hand sanitizer

Air freshener (non-spray)

White paper bags

Spray cleaner

Book bag

Excuse me? It seems that a good many of these items are for use by the school or the teacher, not the student. And when did it become normal for students to supply their own toilet paper!?

The last time I looked, taxes have not gone down. In fact, now there are property taxes, state taxes, federal taxes, SPLOST taxes, and taxes I can’t even remember. What is being done with the tax money?

I’m sure that the teachers aren’t getting wealthy, so who is spending how much on what?

Oh, and in a bit of elementary school socialism, the school is asking that supplies not be marked with the children’s names, as they will be divided between all the students.

If I were a parent of a school-age child, I think I’d go see the superintendent, show up at school board meetings, visit the principal, and demand answers at the local PTO or PTA. But if you do that, be warned —you will probably need to bring your own toilet paper.

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----If I were a parent of a
Submitted by fcteacher on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 3:44pm.

----If I were a parent of a school-age child, I think I’d go see the superintendent, show up at school board meetings, visit the principal, and demand answers at the local PTO or PTA.----

Please do it and while you're there ask about the salaries of all the county-level employees. There are a ton of them. What exactly do they do all day to justify the money they make? The money our taxes pay them. The head of this, the head of that, the parent mentor.....what do they do? I bet you'd be surprised at how much money they make. I believe that's where the money is going.

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Father Epps - not a clue
Submitted by teach2palm on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 8:11am.

Father Epps column this week highlights the fact that he must not have spoken to any teachers before posting this. The fact of the matter is, the supplies are needed because the money from the state and county often go for other supplies like manipulatives, hands-on materials and technical equipment so students can do better and learn more faster and pass the almighty CRCT. Not to mention extra teachers that are needed because of the smaller class sizes that we now have. If the parents don't provide it for THEIR children then the teachers will have to. And as a teacher I do supply a lot of supplies for my students. This year alone, I've already purchased 24 boxes of crayons, 15 glue bottles and over $300 in other related school items. And that is not counting what I purchased with the Governor's money. All on a teacher's salary. I don't know of any other service profession that pays for so much out of pocket to be able to serve those they work with. I guess Father Epps subscribes to the philosophy of too many that it is the schools job to teach and the parents don't have any responsibility in it at all.

And if you would like to come make sure all supplies are given to the correct child, please come volunteer and do this on a daily basis in my classroom. I'm sorry, but if I have 100 #2 yellow pencils, I really don't know or have the time to find out which one belongs to Billy. Handling class supplies this way most definetely is not a matter of socialism. And if my children's supplies get used by another child, maybe one whose parents can't afford them, that is wonderful. We've taught them to share with others who are in need.It might not have been your intent, Father Epps, but you basically have shown a great lack of support for the teachers. Parents should gladly purchase what the teachers need because it is for THEIR child. The teachers do so much for the children in their class, and pay for so much out of their pocket for YOUR child. Please don't give them attitude about supplies.

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not a clue
ctkcec's picture
Submitted by ctkcec on Mon, 08/07/2006 - 10:29am.

I repeat---where is the tax money going? I do NOT think that teachers should have to buy supplies for the kids. I DO believe that the zillions of tax dollars extracted from people (including myself --and I haven't had a child in school for years, although I will continue to pay for schools for the rest of my life)SHOULD BE ENOUGH! Neither parents nor teachers should have to buy these essential supplies--and if the supplies are not essential to education, they are unnecessary.And I do, indeed, respect teachers. I think they should be paid more, supported more, and given the tools and training they need. I do NOT think they should be expected to buy supplies that, in former days, were paid for by tax dollars. And it's not like the taxes have ever gone down.


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Father Epps and school supplies.
bad_ptc's picture
Submitted by bad_ptc on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 8:51am.

Father Epps, let me start out by saying that having put a child through K-12 in PTC my wife and I used to ask the same questions. However, as we became more involved in our child’s education we realized that the school system and some parents are not able to afford all of the materials that a child needs in class.

Another piece of paper your parishioners should have shown you is the standard field trip authorization. On it there is a paragraph that says something like, “The cost of this field trip is $xx.xx. If you can’t afford this amount your child is still welcomed to participate in the field trip."

The point being is that not all parents can afford the cost of what it takes to educate a child in our school system. By the way, I’m pretty sure that you weren’t being taught the same curriculum as the children are being taught today.

Now to the darker side. If I had to go to Booth Middle School, one more time, and explain to the vice principal that my son was NOT going to build a thrown out of news paper for English class. I swear I was going to lose it. I demanded of the staff that they show me where this exercise was on the SAT’s. Things like this happened several times. Why can’t the English teachers teach our children English? Why is the obligatory mythology class always slipped into the “English” class? How about putting Mythology in the Mythology class? My rant is over now.


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Huh?
Basmati's picture
Submitted by Basmati on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 11:58am.

If I had to go to Booth Middle School, one more time, and explain to the vice principal that my son was NOT going to build a thrown out of news paper for English class.

I read the above sentence 3 times and it still makes no sense. Hopefully your child has a better command of the English language than you do bad_ptc! Smiling


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.
Submitted by lifeinptc on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 3:03pm.

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Rice
bad_ptc's picture
Submitted by bad_ptc on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 12:33pm.

Upon reading it again, I see that I could have written a bit more clearly.

My child got an assignment, in English class, to build a thrown out of newspaper.

It was part of the mythology they were studying at the time.


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ah now I see.
Basmati's picture
Submitted by Basmati on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 12:57pm.

Ah okay, you meant "throne". I thought you were referring to "thrown out" (i.e. discarded) newspapers and could NOT figure out what you meant. Smiling


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I believe
Submitted by snark on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 12:23pm.

Our anal-retentive friend was looking for the word "throne" instead of "thrown."

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Happened before
bad_ptc's picture
Submitted by bad_ptc on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 1:35pm.

That’s happened to me before. The “auto-correct” in this editor screws me and I don’t catch it.


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ah, that we should all have such a child...
Submitted by snark on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 12:16pm.

I'm sure that's all bad_ptc would ever ask from a carefully-reared child - that he or she grow up to be an inflexible nitpicker incapable of even reading for substance without his demons kicking in. Smiling

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.
Submitted by snark on Sat, 08/05/2006 - 12:22pm.

.

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