I'm sorry you have to buy school supplies, NOT.

Yesterday, I was shopping at my local Target which is in an upper middle class neighborhood. Being a teacher, I was really excited that Target has just launched their huge new school supplies section. Being a title 1 school teacher, I was really excited to find 17 cent (!!!!!!) notebooks that I could buy for my entire class. If you are unfamiliar with what a title 1 school is, it is a school that is funded for having a majority of the students are at risk, or living in poverty. At my school, most of the students can't even afford pencils to do their homework with-let alone food to eat at home. 


Ok, I am digressing, SO here I am excitedly calling my mother and texting my boyfriend telling them how thrilled I am that I found these notebooks for such a good price that I can buy for my kids (add these notebooks to the growing bags of supplies that currently floods my trunk for my classroom next year); I mean I couldn't believe that I could buy 70 books for under $12. WOW! That's enough spiral notebooks to last my kids all year! I'm sitting on the floor of target, counting out notebooks and adding them to my overflowing cart (which was filled with $1 books for my classroom library), when a woman approaches me with her two young children. This is how it went down:

Her: "Look at all those books, you must be a teacher"
Me: "Haha, yea I am."
Her: "I don't understand why you teachers tell parents to go buy all these supplies when you are just going to buy it yourself anyway!"
Me: "Ma'am I am paying for these with my own money, I do not get reimbursed for these materials."
Her: "So? I am spendng my own money on these too!!"
Me: "Ma'am that is your  own child's  school supplies for the year."
Her: " I don't get why you teachers ask me to buy four of one thing when my kid is only in first grade! For God's sake why does he need four notebooks?" *waving a 17 cent notebook in my face*
Me: "They are used for different subjects at the teachers discretion, if she asked for them she has a use in mind for them."
Her: " Yea right! My kid won't be using all this in first grade! I bet it's going to the kids who don't bring in school supplies. You know what I say about that? Too bad! You should have brought your own stuff!"
Me: "Ma'am I work in a title 1 school where my students can't even afford food for dinner, or clothes when they grow. There are many homeless families in our county."
Her: "Well, that's just too bad for them!"


At that point, I just walked away. I cannot BELIEVE the audacity of people. First of all, that notebook you're waving in my face costs 17 cents, for all four notebooks that the teacher outrageously asked for that will cost you a grand total of,  gasp, 68 cents. And those glue sticks? Well, those cost a whopping 10 cents. For all the items on school supply lists-there are bargain prices. A set of 10 markers are 50 cents at Wal*Mart. Scissors? 50 cents. A set of 12 pencils will run you 94 cents. You can get your child's full school supply list, and then some, for under 10 dollars. That $10 is a small investment to put toward your child's education, don't you think? No, teachers aren't out to secretly get you on the cost of school supplies- we don't get a cut of the profits from the manufacturers. No, we don't ask for a specific type of markers because they cost more, we request a specific type of marker because they work better for YOUR child.


Let me focus on that for just a minute. You say that buying school supplies is too expensive and it is outrageous for teachers to ask for cheap items such as spiral notebooks-but then, if you walk into a classroom that isn't decorated, or the library isn't full of books for your star child to read, that teacher is clearly not a good teacher. Am I correct? I am about to blow your mind. 


Teachers pay for every item in their classroom. They pay for the bulletin board papers, the borders, the books, the alphabet above the board. They pay for the dry erase markers, the hand wipes, the pencil sharpeners. The books in their class libraries, the cute carpet on the floor, the curtains on the windows, the posters on the walls. NONE of that is funded by the school district. Every single decorative item in a classroom, hell, every item besides the desks and chairs is purchased by the teacher, with their own salary, from their own pocket.  


In my classroom alone, I have spent over $3,000; and this is on the low end of the spectrum. YOUR child is my every thought; when I walk in to Target, I stop at the dollar section to see if there are books I can buy for little Sally and Joe to read. I have even gone so far as putting back food items for my lunches to buy supplies for your children.  To me, Ramen noodles for lunch and dinner are worth it if I can buy your child a book he is interested in reading. 

I am not writing this post to make you feel bad for teachers, or to brag amount the amount of money I spend on my job. I am more than happy to put my earnings back into my classroom because I truly believe that a classroom should feel like a home, that every child should have the supplies he or she needs to be successful. (I won't even go into the pay cut we just received, or the professional development days that were docked from our salary as well) 


I want YOUR child to succeed in school, and for that, I will gladly continue to invest my meager paychecks  while you bitch and moan over contributing $10 (a year) for their school supplies.