I always loved school as well as getting ready for the first day. “Back in the day”, all we carried to school was our crayons, our lunch and our jacket; everything except crayons was provided by the school (pencils, paper, scissors, even Kleenex). We showed up with our new box of 12 Crayola crayons (the only brand available and still the best brand in my opinion!) and our year began.
Now, getting ready for the first day beyond new clothes and new shoes includes backpacks, notebooks, pencil boxes filled with a variety of tools, colored markers, glue sticks, and any number of specialized items the teacher thinks will add to the school year experience. As a former teacher, I can attest that those extras do make a positive difference, plus having students bring them saves school districts lots of money.
My biggest shock when our kids were in high school was the need for a ‘special’ calculator for math class. And, not just any calculator…no, not the $1.00 style. It had to be a scientific calculator** at $120! After I picked myself up off the floor, I sent my husband on the trek to find the special calculator which by today’s standards would be insufficient. Even my husband shook his head. He managed to get through high school and graduate college with a slide rule! (If you are young and reading this, you may never have heard of a slide rule! It was a magical stick, usually 12 inches long, that allowed math computations of the highest order to be done by sliding the middle section to line up with a huge gradient of numbers. I never understood it but it fascinated me anyway. Obviously, I was not a math major!)
These days as the stores stock up with hundreds of school supplies, I use that as an excuse to get out with the students and parents and shop for my yearly office/school/writing supplies. The price differences are amazing when you shop between July and early September. Packs of college-ruled paper are 50 cents, crayons as well; rulers are a quarter and folders are a dime. If you return in October the prices are back to their unreasonably high levels and I can tsk, tsk at people who need them now and must pay a fortune for everyday supplies.
I must confess that I love one additional excuse for buying supplies. I need many of the basics for my training classes for classroom volunteers, especially when I make volunteer pouches. These handy dandy pouches keep students working with you rather than heading off to get the basics: pencils, erasers, glue, scissors and tape. It’s one way I encourage educators to help volunteers keep their charges settled and focused; I’ve taken away the need to get up and go get something to avoid their work except for getting drinks and needing to use the bathroom.
How are you coping with back-to-school, crayons and technology?
BTW ** When I looked up scientific calculators today, they begin at $10 and climb up into hundreds of dollars. Things keep changing as technology advances. It must be a challenge for educators who depend on technology to keep up with what’s available. I’m comfy with my box of 64 Crayolas and the calculator on my phone. That tells you a lot about me.