Back to School Nostalgia

[CACAdmin]

Back to school supplies in the 1950's meant, HB Pencils, pink erasers, a plastic ruler, a fountain pen, an exercise book, etc. There were no calculators or ballpoint pens, much less laptop computers.

For those of you who will be busy shopping for school supplies for your kids (or grandkids), take a moment to think of what your parents were buying your for back-to-school when you were a kid. How does it differ from your shopping list for your kids today?

[GaryofMontreal]

We've been back in school for a week in Quebec. On Thursday, one of my grade eleven kids, during a discussion of trying to seeing things from a different perspective, said "I can't imagine the dark misery of life before the Internet."

It was a great line.

I told her the worst day of my youth was the one when I tied my beloved horse up outside of school, and when I came out, a dinosaur had eaten it.

[CACAdmin]

:twitcy:

[Pamelajo]

:err::laugh:
Gary did your school also have the little black boards and chalk instead of paper and pens??

Jay, he sounds even older than you??
When I was in public school I think everything was provided, except in maybe grade 7 & 8. Then in high school we supplied everything.

During my daughters time in public school, they supplied very little always got a list at the end of the year for the next year of supplies to buy. The one thing they are doing in our area is making kids wear indoor and outdoor shoes. I understand the reasoning behind it, but for big families and financially strapped families it is expensive. Some say they can wear slippers, but they still need runners for gym.

[CACAdmin]

I think Gary must be older than me... I don't remember dinosaurs hanging around the school. :wink:

Indoor and outdoor shoes? What is their reasoning? What are they going to do if a kid arrives without their 'indoor shoes'? Send them home? At the price of shoes and the speed with which kids outgrow them, that is more than a little over-the-top, I'd say.

[Pamelajo]

To keep the floors clean and dry in the classrooms, prevents accidents but the halls still get messy and dangerous. Most kids will avoid wearing boots at all costs.:frown:

[OldMan]

I must be younger than I thought. Only 61 years young here. I never parked a horse outside the school but remember an assignment in about grade 4 or 5 to paint a hanger in a unique color pattern so that we could use that hanger to hang our individual coats for the rest of the school year without anyone coming up short on a hanger for their winter coat. My guess is that the school could not afford a new hanger for each student but figured that each student could afford a personalized hanger for themselves. We did the hanger painting in art class and had it to use the rest of the year. It was a win-win solution because each of us had something we got to create and the school didn't need to buy a bunch of coat hangers. We even took the hangers home at the end of the year and got to use them the next year.
The HB pencils and other supplies bring back memories but this one practical solution somehow stuck in my mind for over 50 years.

[BarbG]

My 8 year old needs a calculator for grade 3?!? And each child needs 3 pairs of shoes - outdoor pair, indoor pair for school, and and indoor pair for the after school program they go to until 4:30 each day outside of school. I bought 6 pairs of kids shoes this year. TGFZ (thats Zellers)

[CACAdmin]

If it were me, I'd be questioning what's more important, their clean floor or my kid having a decent meal or a jacket and gloves to keep them warm in the winter. 'The 'indoor shoes' for a clean floor concept is ridiculous. I don't think it's a sfety issue or they'd have to discard their shoes at the entrance to the school. They probably figure if kids aren't tracking dirt into the classrooms they can cut janitorial hours (they'll have janitors only be cleaning the hallway floors resulting in one more poor person whose income has been cut but yet has to find the money to buy an extra pair of shoes. :rolleyes: If walking in the school wearing 'outdoor shoes' is such a danger then I guess entering the local mall from outdoors without everyone donning indoor shoes is a major hazard.

I'm certainly glad I'm not a parent facing these issue and this expense. I would never have been able to afford it if my kids had each needed an extra pair of shoes to keep the school happy.

[Laura]

Yeah - my guys need the pair to leave at school, but I don't need the daycare shoes until the weather demands it. I was lucky that they still fit into shoes that we already have so it staggers my purchases.....
I suspect that it limits maintenance on the floors and has the kids used to the routine when fall and winter hits. You don't want some kids in socked feet when the halls are mucky from rain boots and winter gear.

[Noctame]

Its still insensitive. Parents have to buy clothing and shoes constantly enough as it is at that age. My single parent mother had two young girls within a year of each other in elementary school and she had to handle bull**** like that. Three pairs? My ***. We had one pair for outside and one pair (normally the new set) for gym/indoors. And we reused the new pair from a previous year for outside school the next year. I'd complain about the rule if I went to PA meetings. Utter insensitivity to parents that may be suffering from job loss in today's economy.

[RiverStone]

My oldest is in grade one this year and I have two more waiting in the wings. Although the school purchased the items for us (had to send in $30) the list included everything from multiple packs of crayons, an absurd amount of glue, kleenex and tennis balls. Yes that right tennis balls, apparently they reduce noise in the classroom if stuck to the legs of chairs. Oh and yes of course we had to buy gym shoes.

[CACAdmin]

Tennis balls? I should think that simply putting self adhesive felt pads on chair legs would be much cheaper and more practical than tennis balls.

[Pamelajo]

All the schools are doing the tennis ball thing. I have even seen them on sale some where.
I actually thought about it, because might little felt things never stay on for very long.

[OldMan]

Forget about the tennis balls at the store. They are quite expensive. A tennis ball used by a real tennis player has a very short life so a used (worn out in their mind) tennis ball should be available for next to nothing. If all you are going to do is cut a slit in one end and slip it over a chair leg, a worn out ball should be fine. Another option is the worn out ball that you have been using to play with your dog. It started life as a tennis ball or a reasonable facsimile so it can also be used.
You may be able to tell that I still have the first dollar that I ever earned. Cheap means good sense to me in most situations although I don't hesitate to spend when I need to.

[Pamelajo]

Why pay more than we have to, and learning to recycle things instead of throwing them out is a big deal now. I am surprised the schools are trying to get recycled ones, the really promote recycling here.

[CACAdmin]

The National Bank of Canada for the past 3 years has been collecting used tennis balls at tournaments in Quebec and recyling them, "The tennis balls
recovered will be redistributed to various Quebec schools and school boards to be placed on the legs of students' chairs."
Story here (http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS186498+30-Apr-2009+MW20090430).

In other areas, watch for tennis tournaments and approach the organizers to see if they're willing to ask for used tennis balls to be donated for school.s Also try contacting local tennis clubs and see if they'll ask their members to donate their old tennis balls for schools to use.

[GaryofMontreal]

I don't know how things are where you are, but here in Montreal, we don't always have as many regular caretakers in schools as we used to. Sub-contracted companies aren't accountable the way the old school janitors were - they change staff every week and you never know who is doing the cleaning at night(or, sometimes, where your stuff went).

Big costs are being downloaded onto parents, through school fees, extra shoes etc. The school gets blamed, but if you investigate the funding, you'll find the culprit in a business suit smiling from posters during election periods.

My classroom floor is washed and waxed once a year. It's swept every few days, unless I sweep it myself (I do). The elementary schools go with the tennis balls because you can see when they're off and get to them before the precious finish on the tiles is destroyed.

[Pamelajo]

Here at the public school we still have a regular janitor on during the day and one or two in the evening, but not sure about the regular high school. Steph went to a Catholic one and I think they did because it was always spotless, floors gleaming.

Gary I work in a nursing home and am familiar with funding. We also get because some family members think we should hire more staff. Our administrator has had to explain, that there is not enough money coming in from funding to just hire more staff. We are a non-profit home which means that some funding envelopes that are not spent are clawed back and can't be transferred from on department or envelope to another. An example would be that the Activation department, had money left over but we can't transfer it to nursing. Say for instance with the food funding if you have some left over money at the end of the and want to use it to buy some extras with, nope can't yanked back. But if you go over they don't kick in any extra.