Jumbo Crayons

[powerboy]

That is why I hate school, They tried to get everyone to buy the same exact brand that the teacher wanted. My family is not the richest family their is. Yeah we have some money, but hell, my parents had bills to pay, clothes to buy, food to buy. Also my 8th grade math teacher, was an asshole to me. He once went-off, because I asked him how to do a problem, I told him, that if he would explain the answer, then just writing it out, then I might not have to ask.

Also, who cares, if someone has something different, if they have something better, then so be it. My feelings are not hurt.

[Retail Associate]

Was her name Mrs. Stevens? :P

Her name was Miss Strange...I kid you not! I'll never forget her. Every day I feared going to school because I thought she'd humiliate me again.

[AFpheonix]

Wow. Can't recall having any of those issues when I was in school. We did have to put book covers on all of our texts during junior high and high school, and mom and I would usually find some fun paper bags to do it with (Barnes & Noble usually had the best ones).

[Gurndigarn]

Hmm. I've not had that problem with inventory lists with my kids teachers. They have been nice and generic.

I suspect that it may be influenced by geography to a certain extent, and individual teachers with associated supervisors (a lot of principals/boards of educaton would step on teachers who were so anal) also. At a guess, you'll run into more in yuppieish places (ones who freak because the US is so far behind <rival du jour>, so we need to be more like R.d.j.)

I never had any problems personally, and I have a large number of children who have been in a fair number of different school systems. Some of the teachers have been more specific than others about their requests, and some have been more rediculous (24 exposure 35 mm film? Wtf?), but I've never had any teacher refuse to take whatever I sent.

The one that got me is how, around here, they freak if you don't send your kids to pre-school. "Your child will be so far behind!" Well, no, not unless you're really pushing for Learning How To Take Tests (what I consider fake intelligence), and not really caring about Figuring Out How Things Work Together (what I consider real intelligence). Surround a four-year-old with paper, crayons, blocks, dolls, computers (optional), siblings (optional, but nice), etc., and they're going to get a pretty good education.

[/soapbox]

[draftermatt]

I knew a kid in the 6th grade who had a teacher complain because his notebook closed too loud. She told him he needed to get a new notebook.

His father wrote her a note stating that if she didn't like the supplies that HE bought for his son then she could jolly well go out and buy him new supplies.

I told my mother the story and she agreed with the father.

I never had a problem with that stuff. My teachers would have specific things listed and we always got them. I never heard teachers complain if other kids weren't exact. That's assanine and I will tell any teacher that. (Now I have to talk to my sister about all of this). But there was never a lot of specifics when it came to folders, notebooks, pencils, etc. Just things like "Number 2 Pencils" or "Elmers Glue".

The nice thing is, around here all of the "demands" and supply lists stop after elementary school (5th grade). Then you had just better be prepared. (I hope it's this way when I have kids)

[draftermatt]

The one that got me is how, around here, they freak if you don't send your kids to pre-school. "Your child will be so far behind!" Well, no, not unless you're really pushing for Learning How To Take Tests (what I consider fake intelligence), and not really caring about Figuring Out How Things Work Together (what I consider real intelligence). Surround a four-year-old with paper, crayons, blocks, dolls, computers (optional), siblings (optional, but nice), etc., and they're going to get a pretty good education.

[/soapbox]

Oh that burns me up. No one I know went to that crap (sorry sis) and most of us turned out just fine. You can't fix stupid though, even if you start at 3 instead of 5.

I guess I shouldn't say crap. I think a lot of preschoolers are fine or they are good programs. But to require them or to think kids won't turn out right for not going... It's amazing Newton and all those guys who we study now got anything done isn't it?

Ever notice there's been no life altering discoveries for a long ass time?

[Knightmare]

When I was in grade school, in Michigan, the school system provided most of that stuff. What they didn't provide, such as folders and paper, etc, we (our parents, actually) had to. And it didn't matter what you chose, as long as it wasn't indecent or controversial. Michigan's public school system rocked!
Now, here in FL, the parents have to buy pretty much everything. Books, folders, paper, etc. Not much is provided by the school system.
That's because Florida's school system is horrible. 49th or 50th worst in the Union.
Many of the teachers here can't write or spell to save their life. Their grammar is atrocious. One of my step-son's teachers consistantly misspelled "school" as "shcool."
My daughter will be starting school soon (Pre-K). I know we won't have many problems at that level, but Heaven help the teacher that starts that crap with MY daughter. I am a very laid back kind of guy, but not when it comes to my daughter.
Nothing physical, nothing violent... but I will make sure you will never mess with her again.

As a side note, I've been thinking of going back to school to get my teaching degree. It was my first major in college, and people as far back as I can remember have told me (and still tell me) that I would make a wonderful teacher. And I do like to boss little kids around. Just kidding.

The scary part? Even I can be a substitute teacher here. I have no degree, haven't been in a class room in almost 15 years, and I only have (mostly) retail experience.
Maybe I can teach the kids how to grow up and be non-sucky customers?

[Banrion]

The only brand specific directive I remember from my school days was at the top and bottom of every list, and on every line where applicable in big bold letters "NO TRAPPER KEEPERS!!!!" For whatever reason teachers HATED those things with a passion, I'm guessing due the velcro that lends itself to being played with, but who knows.

[BookstoreEscapee]

It actually makes more sense to have the parents send in some cash and let the teacher get the supplies, especially if they insist they all be the same; the teacher can then buy cheaper in bulk, plus a lot of stores offer discounts to teachers. It would save the families some money.

I always had to supply my own writing utensils and notebooks (generally one for each class, or a binder) but generally things like art supplies and such were provided by the school.

A few years ago kids started coming in looking for those stretchy fabric book covers for the kids to cover their textbooks and get all frantic and well, where can I find them? when we didn't have them. What ever happened to paper grocery bags? You can't even write/draw on the fabric ones. (Though they do come in handy...I have one I used on books I borrowed from the store and library books to keep them clean.)

When I was in school I never, ever had to buy a book for a class. Now we get orders from teachers for 30 copies and the students come in to buy them individually. (Of course, if the teacher bought them all and collected the money from the students, they'd get them at a 20-25% discount.) That way they all have the same version of the book (which is the only thing I can see requiring everyone have the same). Plus every summer there's at least 4 tables of summer reading and a big binder with the lists and requirements from all the schools in the area. I never had summer reading, either. The first summer I worked in the bookstore I was like, what the hell is this? (My one store got a list from one school which must have been in use for several years, cuz a number of books on it were out of print!)

I went to preschool for two years - a (non-religious) program at a local church when I was 3 and a program at the high school near me when I was 4. The high school program is actually part of a class the school offers, so is taught by the HS students. I took that class when I was a junior. It runs across 2 class periods (1 1/2 hours), 3 days a week, from Jan-May. So the little ones actually have about 30 teachers that switch "shifts" in the middle of their "school day." But it's more a learn the alphabet, arts and crafts, play games, social hour kind of thing.

[Sofar]

All I remember is being the kid with the least crayons in the class . . . I had 24 "Golden" crayons, which my father bought for me, they're made by the same guys what make the acrylic paints. They were infinitely superior to all other crayons but none of the other kids had ever heard of the brand, and everyone else had sets of 64, 128, 256, 512 and in the case of little Austin, 1,024 Crayolas. Little Austin couldn't draw but that didn't matter. Of course by the end of the year three quarters of Austin's 1,024 crayons were lost, broken or trodden-upon, and I still had all 24 of my Golden crayons.

By the way, who else here agrees with me that "crayon" is pronounced with two syllables? You can just go around ignoring vowels.

[Banrion]

By the way, who else here agrees with me that "crayon" is pronounced with two syllables? You can just go around ignoring vowels.

Yup, sounds just like it's spelled CRAY-on.

[Rapscallion]

Ever notice there's been no life altering discoveries for a long ass time?

Organ transplants, computers, dishwashers, washing machines, antibiotics...

Been quite a few in the last hundred years or so, and quite a few of those are fairly recent in historical terms.

Rapscallion

[CaroPhoenix]

My daughter is in pre-school. Before anyone throws rotten vegetables at me let me explain why she's there.

For those of you who don't know, my brilliant and beautiful daughter is developmentally delayed and may or may not be autistic (we're taking her to be tested/evaluated on March 1). It was recommended to us to put her in a special education pre-school so she can be socialized around other kids (I'm a SAHM and she's an only child). She's learning how to interact with people, cutting, coloring, and everything else that I couldn't teach her.

As far as supplies went, I got a small list of: paper towels, tissues, diapers/pull-ups for her and hand sanitizer. That's it. And they didn't care what brand we bought or if it was expensive or cheap. They were just happy that the parents brought things in. The pre-school is part of the school system, but sometimes I think it gets shafted.

[Gurndigarn]

My daughter is in pre-school. Before anyone throws rotten vegetables at me let me explain why she's there.

I didn't say pre-school was inherintly bad. We actually put one of my sons in pre-school voluntarily, but that was because he had a specific problem we felt needed worked on (speech issues). But the way the local school system assumes that you want-- no, that you feel this burning, unquenchable need-- to put your child in preschool... scares me. The expressions when you go to enroll your child in kindergarden and they find out that she >gasp< wasn't preschooled! Oh, the horrors! The humanity of it all!

We didn't feel the need to point out that we felt that kindergarden was optional, too.

[cheese]

Wow, thats really odd that everything has to be supplied.
When I was at primary school, I didn't have to buy or take any supplies. At middle school I had to take a pen/pencil etc, but no folders/books or anything, that was all supplied. Same at high school, too. Only when I got to college did I have to start supplying anything for myself.