What You've Just Bought!

[S0ULphIRE]

Huh, previously I'd only heard of that happening in the US, land of the "free to fire you" and home of the "bravely defending corporations' rights above individuals"

Honestly though, as employees protected by yada yada laws, I don't know that I feel very sorry for any teacher who goes out and buys **** like that from their own pocket. Like are you a moron? Report it to your manager/superintendent and ****ing sue them if they try to force you to pay for student supplies. It ain't in your contract

Bought some more chickens! Got 3 now, should lay enough to mean I don't have to buy eggs again for ages. 2 are a dedicated laying breed so they'll keep pumping em out during winter (albeit slower) as well as warmer months.

 

[kmanmx]

Huh, previously I'd only heard of that happening in the US, land of the "free to fire you" and home of the "bravely defending corporations' rights above individuals"

Honestly though, as employees protected by yada yada laws, I don't know that I feel very sorry for any teacher who goes out and buys **** like that from their own pocket. Like are you a moron? Report it to your manager/superintendent and ****ing sue them if they try to force you to pay for student supplies. It ain't in your contract

Bought some more chickens! Got 3 now, should lay enough to mean I don't have to buy eggs again for ages. 2 are a dedicated laying breed so they'll keep pumping em out during winter (albeit slower) as well as warmer months.

I think that is missing the point entirely. The teachers are doing it because they want to teach and they want their children to succeed, and the money just isn't there for the supplies they need. It's not that anyone is going to fire them for not buying the equipment kids needs, it's that they care a lot and would rather spend their own money than have the education of their students impaired.

 

[PP Mguire]

My wife is a retired teacher and before she is retired it was normal for her to buy supplies, that has been going on for more than 15 yrs. Where have you been?

When your kid brings home a pencil and a note book, thank the teacher because they pay for that stuff out of their own pocket, The school itself pays for nothing for those supplies.

It's been the norm for that long for school supply lists to cover extras for those that don't come prepared. There's absolutely no way my 6th grade kid needs 60 pencils, 4 sets of map pencils, an 8 pack of paper towels, 4 scissors, 2 rulers, etc. If even half the student's parents actually purchase all that (like I do) then the classroom is pretty stocked at least for the first semester. I remember when my son started K, they asked for a 20 pack of glue sticks per child. Like damn if all the parents bought that it would be 400 glue sticks for a class of 20. Now the majority of parents will skim the list and get only materials for their own child which is understandable, but for those of us who understand why they do that we do get everything on the list. I know I'm not the only one, at least in this neighborhood.

Will I do this when they're in high school? Absolutely not.

I think that is missing the point entirely. The teachers are doing it because they want to teach and they want their children to succeed, and the money just isn't there for the supplies they need. It's not that anyone is going to fire them for not buying the equipment kids needs, it's that they care a lot and would rather spend their own money than have the education of their students impaired.

Correct.

 

[Joe C]

Will I do this when they're in high school? Absolutely not.

This is the reason why we bought pencils, folders and notebooks at the start of every year. My wife taught in the high school before she retired. High school kids almost never have pencils. Have you ever asked a teacher for a pencil in high school? You can bet that pencil was paid for from the teachers own pocket. Maybe teachers should stop providing pencils, and fail those kids for the class hour. Parents would have a screaming fit.

In elementary they asked for 20 glue sticks from you, but teachers ask other parents for different items for all the kids (because they know a lot of parents won't bring anything at all) Do you seriously believe they want 400 glue sticks?

Teacher:
Mr. PP, please bring 20 glue sticks, Mrs. Smith please bring xxx pencils and Mr. Jones please bring xxx colored markers....ect.

 

[PP Mguire]

This is the reason why we bought pencils, folders and notebooks at the start of every year. My wife taught in the high school before she retired. High school kids almost never have pencils. Have you ever asked a teacher for a pencil in high school? You can bet that pencil was paid for from the teachers own pocket. Maybe teachers should stop providing pencils, and fail those kids for the class hour. Parents would have a screaming fit.

In elementary they asked for 20 glue sticks from you, but teachers ask other parents for different items for all the kids (because they know a lot of parents won't bring anything at all) Do you seriously believe they want 400 glue sticks?

Teacher:
Mr. PP, please bring 20 glue sticks, Mrs. Smith please bring xxx pencils and Mr. Jones please bring xxx colored markers....ect.

School lists here are grade wide, segregated items are listed under boys/girls per grade. In the case of glue sticks, every parent in Kindergarten for this school was asked to bring 20 glue sticks, on top of 4 boxes of crayons, 8 boxes of markers, 4 packs of manilla paper, 4 pack of scissors, etc. So yes, if each parent in that class bought 20 glue sticks they would definitely have that many, and I understand why.

My comment "would I do that in high school, absolutely not" was regarding buying everything on their list. Will I buy a binder, pencils/pens, paper, and folders? Yes. Will I provide a ton of other nonsensical materials the school asks for that won't be used? No. In the case of lower grades it makes sense, but in high school even when I was in high school 15 years ago I only needed a single binder, 2 spirals, some paper, and pens/pencils. Nothing more. High school and middle school kids these days do a ton of work on Chromebooks/Ipads. So the necessity of those materials on a list are reduced even further.

As for did I ask for a pencil, actually no. By the time I was 16 I had to pay for everything out of my own pocket except for a place to live. It's why I bought the bare minimum required for high school because it's literally all I needed. Even without the help of computer devices. It's also why I stand on my own principle that I won't purchase anything else. Once the kids are all out of middle school I won't be purchasing a ton of extras.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I think that is missing the point entirely. The teachers are doing it because they want to teach and they want their children to succeed, and the money just isn't there for the supplies they need. It's not that anyone is going to fire them for not buying the equipment kids needs, it's that they care a lot and would rather spend their own money than have the education of their students impaired.

I get this, and I think if anything their efforts helping keep a broken system in place. Clearly more funding is needed, and reshuffling some less important expenditures to boost the education fund is a permanent fix. What *isn't* a solution is making the teachers cough up the missing funds from their own pocket.
Teachers taking the burden on themselves keeps the class functional for the day/week, and enable the true culprits in this situation to pretend everything's hunky dory. If the classes suddenly couldn't run because there's no stationary/whatever and the issue had been put in writing to the school board or whomstever is most appropriate, I imagine the parents would be pretty pissed.

 

[PP Mguire]

I get this, and I think if anything their efforts helping keep a broken system in place. Clearly more funding is needed, and reshuffling some less important expenditures to boost the education fund is a permanent fix. What *isn't* a solution is making the teachers cough up the missing funds from their own pocket.
Teachers taking the burden on themselves keeps the class functional for the day/week, and enable the true culprits in this situation to pretend everything's hunky dory. If the classes suddenly couldn't run because there's no stationary/whatever and the issue had been put in writing to the school board or whomstever is most appropriate, I imagine the parents would be pretty pissed.

The parents can be pissed all they want, the system has been broke fundamentally to the core for decades. The teachers do this because they know nothing meaningful will change in any short amount of time no matter what happens. I'm with you in that it should, I pay 10k a year in property taxes and so does everybody else in my surrounding community, topped by the rest of the district with varying amounts of taxes. The schools get a **** ton of money, but from large 5a districts down to 2/3a districts (the country) things like sports get the majority of that budget and board member pockets. To deal with this is to deal with the core problem in this country, greed. Who can take a guess at when that will be solved? Probably never.

 

[kmanmx]

Imagine working for the US or UK governments and thinking it's a good idea to underfund education.

Oh wait they don't care because they know any rich white kid will just be sent to a quality private school charging $50k a year where they can actually afford equipment.

 

[Joe C]

PP, please try to understand that teachers have no control what so ever on costs and revenue. You need to look at the school administration and school board to blame. My wife's classes didn't get sh*t for supplies or much anything else but the sport coaches got everything they want without having to ask. The REASON for this is because sports makes $$$ for the school and the english class is just a financial loss. My wife taught special ed, and she was told that her kids don't even count as "real students"
The issue is not with teachers, look at the top because the feces always runs/goes down hill

 

[acerinpa]

In My school district ( Pittsburgh Pennsylvania suburb) over 50% of the school years budget is actually going for the pension fund for the teachers that have retired. The teachers contracts promised that they get a monthly pension check from day one of when they retire till death. Teachers can retire in 20 years - correct? and basically can't be fired after they get "Tenure" = 3 years of working at a school. So, if they started when they were 23 years only ( bachelors teaching degree in 4 years after high school ) at 43 years old they can retire with a full pension ( receive 80% of the last years pay with full benefits) guaranteed for life with built in cost of living raises, medical ,dental ,etc. That is what is killing the schools in my area and why my taxes are so high. I believe life expectancy is 72 now? - so basically a teacher could be living on the tax payer receiving 80% of their last years wages each and every year for the next 30+ years until death. Not sure I have any actual remedy for the problem as that is what the school district contract states - well done teachers union. The lawyers representing "we tax payers" should be fired and sued for incompetence. I have no issue with teachers making good salaries while working, in fact I think they are underpaid for the crap they put up with - but that type of golden parachute retirement is ridiculous. Joe can probably correct any errors in my details as my info is second hand. Just my 2 cents.

Anyhow I decided on getting a pair of 58X Jubilee headphones from Massdrop (now called "Drop")- I like them so far. Cost me $145.