DISCLAIMER: Please don’t judge the blog by its title — read it all before you judge me.  WARNING: Sarcasm may have been liberally applied by the writer. Please forgive me?

As a teacher for 19 years, I may have an attitude… er… um… an opinion about school supplies. Perhaps you do too. As a mom, I had one when I was buying them. As a kid — I definitely did. In fact, let’s do a little time traveling…

Meet 3rd grade me — pixie hair cut, brown eyes with poor vision. Mrs. Sines class. 25 students sitting with school supplies stacked on their desks. There I was in the first row second seat — behind Matt A., in front of Dwain C. with my Big Chief tablet (Was there any other kind?), my first Pee Chee folder, pencils, a red cigar box-style pencil box, an eraser, pencil sharpener, small bottle of glue, and box of 24 Crayons. As I looked around the class, I realized that my Mom had been a rule follower… again. I mean, she took that school supply list literally. How could she? There I was — I think I was the only one — with my small box of Crayons while all around me, students had boxes of 48 Crayons. And some of them, the lucky ones, had the Holy Grail of Crayola Boxes — the box of 64 with the built-in sharpener. But not me; I had the 24 box. Why couldn’t my Mom have broken the rules that ONE time? Why did she have to take the school supply list so… so… literally?

Four kids. Four lists. That’s why.

While as a third grader I may have been convinced that my mother didn’t love me as much as other kids were loved because I didn’t have the giant box of crayons, I know that isn’t true — I knew it then too. Our love for our children isn’t measured by the size of the crayon box we buy them for the first day of school — nor by the amount of glitter on the spiral cover, not by the Disney character plastic coating on their pencils, and definitely not by the designer backpack.

Classrooms are shared by many children and in that shared space, personal space is greatly limited. A small desk, a narrow locker, and an even smaller “cubby”. Teachers and school districts work to keep cost down for parents purchasing school supplies. They ask for some shared supplies — usually pencils, post its, and tissues — to name a few. And, they take into account the space available for student supplies. I remember my boys loved looking at the “cool” spirals and “awesome” pencils — most of which we didn’t buy.

I must confess that as a teacher, I have a profound addiction to purchasing school supplies. I love composition books, spiral notebooks, folders, fat tip and fine tip markers, post-its, pencils, purple pens, notepads, calendars, highlighters, stickers, blue or black gel pens, colored pencils, and bulletin board borders. Believe me, I understand that pull of those brightly colored, potential filled items. They can become so many things! Yes, I know, that’s weird.

In case you ever wondered… Fancy, brightly colored, patterned pencils are often covered by a plastic coating which destroys pencil sharpeners or gets peeled off and left all over the classroom floor. Composition notebooks and spirals with a plastic cover have now moved from being a biodegradable product to one in which a portion cannot be recycled with that portion taking over 400 years to decompose. By the way, stickers don’t stick to the plastic covers anyway. That fancy, expensive pencil box with the snap lock closure? Most of them are broken within six weeks of school starting. Some of those fancy markers have lids that are hard to close causing the markers to dry out quickly and be wasted. Finally, smelly ink pens can make a teacher nauseated when an entire paper is written in that smelly stuff — trust me I know — there really is too much of good thing.

So… when you are shopping for school supplies and your youngest begs you for the fancy whatever, just… no. They will survive — so will you. Follow the list. If you want to get something extra, ask your child’s teacher what he or she needs for their classroom. You may be surprised at the simple items that you could provide to make that classroom run easier. Your child’s teacher will thank you.

***By the way… I hope your school is a part of the Crayola Corporation Marker Recycling Program. If not, check it out! It’s free to the school and only requires a person to volunteer for a few small tasks associated with gathering and boxing up the markers. Google it! It’s a small step, but it can be an important one.