Posted on 07/28/2013 3:45:35 AM PDT by MacMattico
I'm in NY and my daughter's schools just recently put out their "school supply lists" -- what students have to have for each class and supplies they "share" like tissues, whiteboard markers, colored pencils. My kids are in high school and Jr High.
It cost me $206 for school supplies! And we spend about $17,000 per year per student in this district! Wayyy over taxed!! My parents couldn't have afforded this for 4 kids.
I told the Superintendent this was ridiculous. She tried to steer me to a "charity" group that could help me get the supply's. I said I'm not in need of charity, I think you're wasting our money! She told me not to worry, when school starts they'll have some free supply give-a-ways! How dense! I don't need your $$, I need you to stop wasting money that isn't yours!
Next up: school clothes shopping
A day at the mall of “you are not wearing that to school and you don't need the $75 jeans.” She'll come down on the jeans, because she really is fine with the Holister or AE jeans that are less. I'm on to her— it's her bargaining chip! But then the skirts and shirts— ugh.
Luckily jr high girl likes my taste and says get whatever!
Oh what fun family bonding! Somehow husband will have a last minute "thing" to take care of to avoid the mall at all costs!
We learned the basics...a flash card education more or less. Pretty awesome method.
First grade was learning to read.
Second grade was learning to "write"...with a scratchy pen dipped in the inkwell.
We need to go back to this type of teaching. These kids can't read "writing" and they can't add one and one. And street smarts?? forget it.
I agree, but at least the smart kids (future conservatives) were like “Why are you taking my stuff?” And not happy!
Because teachers are either to darned lazy or ignorant to teach them the correct way. That includes graphing.
My son was told he had to have a graphing calculator for his Trigonometry and Calculus classes. The teachers never taught them how to graph the equations. I had to sit down at home and show my son how to graph it on paper. He told me he understood the subjects better by using graph paper than letting the calculator do the work for him.
He is now in Engineering school.
Out of curiosity, what are all these extras required at the high school level?
The solution to the demand for “shared supplies” is simple. Just refuse to buy them. This is nothing more than state-sponsored socialist indoctrination. You have to pay the taxes that support the socialist school; you DON’T have to participate in the kiddie-Starnesville.
If you do buy something for your child to take to school, put his name on it and make it clear to the “teacher” that it’s your child’s property. That makes the “teachers” mad.
You MUST have been signing up in the district where I teach! You WOULD have been looked at like an alien for refusing the free lunch form.
Went to college for civil engineering. Even though calculators were available, we had to use a slide rule. The object was to use your brains first and then the machine. To clarify, he wanted us to know an approximate answer before we did any machine manipulating. The machine really amounted to a check on our brain work. The method was awesome.
And now? Why do you comply with such an evil system?
They want as much data on everyone as possible. Just like the college FAFSA. You MUST fill it out even if you don't qualify for any aid.
You know how they make kids around here show up for the free summer lunches and “prove” they’re needed?
All the kids that are attending summer school are given the choice to go to the cafeteria for the last half hour of class or sit through 30 more minutes of instruction. Of course they choose lunch. And the teacher gets to do nothing for the last half hour. And a summer school class is only 2 hours long to begin with.
And no food can leave the cafeteria. You must take all that is on the menu
that day and if you don’t like it in the trash it goes. If you’re full and want to save your apple for later, hide it or you’re made to throw it out. Does that sound like a system that really cares if a kid is hungry?
So at the end of the summer the stats show such a “need” for free lunch!
I know this because I have teacher friends who know it’s a scheme, too.
Common supplies redistributed from the upper class students to the lower class students teaches communism from kindergarten. And all of our founding documents are hand written in cursive so the schools aren’t teaching them to read and write cursive. The goals of our public servants are to become our masters.
At the end of the year we always send a list of school supplies for the coming class.
My list is: two - three ring binder (98 cents a piece at Walmart), pencils and a pen. Our school supplies needed crayons, colored pencils, composition paper, glue, etc.
They also supply facial tissue, but the quality is so poor that I alway buy bxes when they are on sale for the class use.
The only thing that I have as "community property" are pencils and pens that I find on the floor of the classroom and hallways.
They get put in a cigar box and if a students needs a pencil for class or the day, they can take one out and use it.
You're right about schools not using their funds wisely. This was a constant complaint of my wife. They hired administrative staff workers and then count them in the student/teacher ratio to make it look like they had lower class sizes. Administrators buy high tech gadgets that seldom work right and hinder teaching rather than help. But it looks good on parent night. Teachers are expected to teach children who can't speak English and if the children fail then it's the teacher's fault. Administrators don't want the expense of keeping them or dealing with the complaining parents. So teachers past them on.
My wife just retired as a mid-school Physics/Chemistry teacher. Each teacher where my wife worked was given one ream of paper (250 sheets) for copying handouts, tests, worksheets, etc. to last them for the entire school year. None of this could be done with notebooks as the students seldom take notes. And if they don't give handouts, parents complain that no notes were given. Her last year she had over 200 students so you do the math as how long one ream of paper would last. Teachers are required (not asked) to decorate their rooms. So posters, back drops, borders were purchased at our expense. This also included the cost of tape, staples, glue, and anything else needed to hang the stuff. To keep up their teaching certificates, teachers are required to attend classes (in the summer) at their expense. As far as science experiments which she was required to do, the school would supply some things but we normally would have to cough up some money to offset the expense. We laugh at the $250 deductible that we got to take off our income tax which never came close to what we paid out.
Grant it, there are teachers that are not very dedicated to their students. Many of them simply don't care. And to be perfectly honest, I can be sympathetic to their plight. My wife was not one of them. My wife would go to work and then come home and grade over 200 papers or work on lesson assignments the rest of the night-every night. On the weekend she was busy recording the grades and preparing next weeks lessons. I cleaned the house and made the dinners while my wife worked on her school work. In the summer months, she was busy getting organized for the next year. She rarely had any time off. We were locked into the school season for our vacation and often had to juggle our schedule around her schedule in the summer when she was attending classes.
Last year we both had finally had had it and she retired early. We are both grateful that she made it.
All through my Boston Public School school years we paid for nothing.
We got used books from at least a year ago that we had to cover in brown paper bags ... which was really great fun and excellent manual arts training ... AND ... we could write and color on them as much as we wanted !
We got dark green #2 pencils with "Boston Public Schools" stamped on them in gold lettering ... free.
The lower grades got that multilined paper to teach kids that some letters were short, some medium and some taller ... free
All the way up to Jr. high, everything was free
('course I know NOW it was tax dollars ... but I NEVER heard any anti-tax talk ... ever)
In Jr High .. I had to buy a jock strap for gym ... we used our own shorts and T shirts (NObody ever wore anything but white T shirts. ... I don't think God had invented colors in those days .. )
High school weas a drag ... we still got our free books and we still covered them in brown paper ... but the girls looked down on brown paper ... so we had to spend a few dollars for some "hip" covers .. (The girls loved the Beatles, but us guys couldn't EVER bring ourselves to put a beatles cover on out books ... car covers were cool.
I quit and joined the Army in 65, so I didn't do the prom thing or any of that get drunk stuff (I wish'd I had .. ) so the class ring and all that never entered my6 life.
The point of this whole essay is; I've read a lot of stories about how schools no longer provide the things I got for free and THAT would flat out piss me off.
I can hear now the response I'd get, after complaining at a PTA (do they still HAVE them?) meeting or school board meeting ...
But Mr Knarf ... we have the salaries to consider ...
They can't do basic math. I filled up with gas a couple of weeks ago, and the pump price was $.02 higher than the sign. I went into the counter to inform them of the mistake. The kid was trying to figure out how much I was overcharged.
I looked at the receipt and noticed I had put 15 gallons in my tank and told him it was $.30, while he was using his phone to calculate the total. After about three minutes, he said "You are right", and gave me $.30.
I earned my EE degree back in the early 80’s. No graphing calculators then. We were allowed to use calculators to check our simple math. We had to use paper to graph equations.
I really have no idea how a person can actually graduate with any engineering degree just using calculators. The basic concepts don’t stick unless you physically put pencil to paper. Using computers seems to be a crutch and if none are available, how do you get the job done?
By the way, I still have and use my slide rule. My children think it is quaint.
Which describes you quite well. But they still get the "sanction of the victim." Your children are being taught by the public school officials and teachers, by their peers, and by you, the same thing: comply.
So what does it matter if they are "like"
"Why are you taking my stuff?"
The takers don't care what you SAY. It is expected that at shearing, some sheep will bleat. It has no effect whatsoever on the system or the total of wool reaped.
So, why are you teaching your kids to accept this kind of thing?
Property taxes in my community come to around $500 on average, and I pay less than that. We can't stay anonymous on an internet forum if we try to prove our claims, but I would bet my house is bigger than yours, and my neighborhood safer. You must have very, very complicated reasons to subject yourself and your family to such mistreatment.
I believe that Man went to the moon using a lot of math that was calculated using slide rules! Might have been a Univac or two in the back room (a rather large back room) but I think a lot of the true thinking was done with pencil and paper. And, the lowly slide rule!
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