48 Pencils

I just got the list of school supplies for my sons' next school year, which actually begins on July 5th (year round track school). As usual, I cannot resist the urge to think something along the lines of "what the hell is happening to my $2000/year property tax money anyway?" because this list is so far beyond anything I remember my parents having to put together when I was a kid. We showed up with a new pencil box, some crayons, maybe a compass (when we got older and the adults were relatively certain we wouldn't poke our eyes out), a squeaky clean new protractor, and a cool notebook -- maybe with Shaun Cassidy on the cover. All of this was our own personal stuff, we got to pick it, we had some say in how we expressed our school supply style.

Those days are gone. These days, at least in suburban Colorado, school supply shopping is a big deal, and you don't buy your own stuff - you buy classroom stuff. Everyone brings everything on the list and it gets put in a big communal pile. The only items you really get to use to express yourself are maybe one notebook, and a binder.

Here's the fifth grade list, just to give you an idea of how this works ... pretty much double it, because I have a second grader too:

48 #2 pencils - no mechanical
4 red pens
2 glue sticks
4 packages wide ruled notebook paper
2 composition books
5 post-it note pads - 2" square
1 5 subject spiral notebook
2 boxes of tissues
2 rolls paper towels
A-L (as in, your last name begins with A-L) - 1 box gallon sized Ziploc bags
M-Z - 1 box sandwich sized Ziploc bags (I can only assume generic is acceptable)
2 pencil sharpeners
1 pencil bag (no boxes)
1 24 count colored pencils
1 pair scissors
3 highlighters (pink, yellow, green)
1 box crayons (how big .. HOW BIG ... for the love of God, what if I get the wrong size??)
1 box markers - classic colors (product placement "classic colors" means CRAYOLA)
1 clipboard
1 package thick tip dry erase markers
1 package notebook dividers (8 tabs) 1 3-ring zippered binder

Doesn't this seem ... excessive? I mean, 48 pencils? The kids are in class for maybe 40 weeks of the year, so we're talking about these kids going through more than one pencil per week. Think about it, there are maybe 25 kids in the class, so one day one of fifth grade, that class has ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED pencils showing up for duty. I think there is a serious need for pencil care and maintenance instruction if the kids are going through that many pencils every year, don't you?

And post-its? Tissue? Paper towels? THIS isn't covered in the school budget? We don't have PE and music every day in schools these days and we still can't afford paper goods? Ziploc bags?

I just don't get it, and this isn't even the end of the expense. Once they actually get back for class, I'll have to pony up more money for books and for their assignment notebook, which is a really nice and heavily spattered with advertisements thing that helps the kids record their homework, like a primary school daytimer. Shouldn't the advertisements be paying for this? It's like going to the movies nowadays and being subjected to 15 minutes of commercials, paying $7 plus snacks to be captive to the same damned commercials I see on TV (did you know Verizon VCast is $15.99/month? Who's buying this?).

And before anyone starts on the yada yada about how if the kids didn't bring these supplies, the teachers would have to buy them because the school budgets have been cut and yaaaaaaawn and on - I get that. I don't think teachers make nearly enough either and I sure don't think they should have to buy supplies out of their own pockets ... and I know they do because they believe in what they do. All of my irritation rests firmly with administrations, government, politics, and society in general for doing even more to homogenize our children's educational experience, taking away creativity so they can teach to the test and making sure that every child knows that everyone is exactly the same while at the same time trying to tell them that they're all different.

Forty eight freaking pencils? I refuse. I'm taking a stand.