Coffee Break with Liz and Kate

T-minus 9 days until the first day of school and we’ve received my third grader’s teacher assignment and school supply lists. Before “serious” conversation can occur, let’s dispense with the preliminaries, shall we?

First came the question of why my kids had 67 days of summer break, while Phineas and Ferb have 104. And they asked the question as if I knew the answer, when my head is jello after a two-month break from school. I say, what’s wrong with the year-round system. (Of course I say that primarily to get their reaction: “Mohhummmm!”)

Let’s start with Hannah. Oh, the excitement of her freshman year in college. A new backpack, a syllabus for every class, typically requiring the purchase of textbooks and a notebook or two, and countless hours of campus bookstore browsing and buying. Which will no doubt include stickie notes, pens, pencils, cups, a sweatshirt or two and some file folders, all with that cute little college mascot and the school’s logo. She’s on her own.

Contrast that with the young boy entering third grade – although I’m willing to bet my young boy isn’t as thrilled with his school supply list as his sister. (Just a hunch.)

Here’s the list:

• Backpack
• School Box, regular size – no large boxes with handles
• Pointed scissors (Fiskars work well)
• Clipboard (with a flat hinge)
• Box of Crayons (24 minimum)
• Box of Colored Pencils
• Box of Magic Markers (washable)
• 1 Composition Writing notebook
• 2 pkgs Wide-rule loose leaf notebook paper
• 2 plain pocket folders with prongs (1 blue, 1 yellow)
• 2 large pink erasers
• 6 glue sticks
• 1 bottle Elmer’s glue
• 40 #2 pencils (Ticonderoga work best: cheap pencils do not sharpen successfully and we throw many away because students can’t use them. Mechanical pencils are not allowed.)
• 2 red ball point  pens (note from Liz: this is a TOTAL shocker, considering the views of some educators)
• 3 highlighters (different colors)
• 2 large boxes of tissues (those with lotion or aloe are best)
• 1 large bottle hand sanitizer
• 1 large container of disinfectant wipes (store brand is okay)
• 1 box ziplock baggies (girls – gallon, boys – quart
• 1 paint pen, any color
• 1 2-inch, 3-ring binder

Then there’s the note about buying extras to keep at home. Several things come to mind as I peruse the list. First, if they’re that picky about what the students should bring, maybe we should all just send money, so they get the “right” pencils, the “right size” sanitizer and the “proper” clipboard (what in the world is a flat-hinged clipboard?!?).

And to think I whined about last year’s list. What was I thinking?? It’s not that my child won’t hit the first day of school without these things. In fact, I always try to buy extras of this and that when possible. Why? Because as the new school year approaches, so do the commercials that remind us that an astronomical percentage of the county’s students can’t even afford a pad of paper. Which makes this mile-long school supply list even more perplexing.  Does our list reflect some big study that shows every single student at the school is capable of affording all of these specifics? I think not. And I speak from experience, because my mother takes backpacks full of food to the school, which go home with the most destitute children in the school to provide them with food for the weekend. Somehow I doubt these children’s parents will be able to fulfill this school supply list if they can’t even put food on the table.

So I ask you: Is it really a big deal if the first seven stores are out of lotion-laden or aloe-based tissues? Can we just go with a regular old box of tissues? And if we do, will we receive a nasty note, stating that, because of us, little Johnnie’s nose got irritated? If the glue isn’t Elmer’s glue, does that mandate a failing grade in grade-three Art Class? Are unwashable markers a demerit? Does the blue folder need to be light blue, navy blue or medium blue?

Is there something about Ticonderoga pencils that promotes better learning than Papermate pencils?

Silly me. I’ve always believed that what they learn trumps anything in their backpacks. Even if they don’t own a Ticonderoga pencil.
-Liz

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