School supplies... for a new world

I’m not sure where the summer went, but it is winding down. School supplies are on the shelves, Lunchables are in the display case at the grocery, and tax-free weekend has filled the sneaker store full of giggling kids and whining mothers. You would think the kids would be whining and the mothers giggling, but one must remember who is paying.

New shoes are a must, especially after they have worn flipflops all summer. Most kids have gone up at least one size and maybe three sizes by the time September hits, and by January, their feet will be pushing into the cold. Here in Texas, we don’t need a new coat for school every year. Most junior high kids wore their coats no more than three times last year. Then they lost it. Parents would do good to rent coats in Texas.

Of course, there will be a list of necessary school supplies. During my thirty years of teaching, I helped to make out some of those lists. We’d have felt bad if we didn’t include colored pencils, a new ruler, and some scissors. Backpacks came in during the 80s and computer discs during the late 90s.

Some students were naturally organized, so they used the brads to stabilize the papers in those pocket folders. The same kids used dividers in their binders, and they used those little round reinforcements to prevent “blow-outs” on items that were holepunched.

About the time my oldest daughter was in junior high school, the girls started decorating the insides of their lockers. Mirrors, adjustable shelves, and an occasional hanging, tiny chandelier graced the nice girly lockers. Of course, it didn’t take long before the plastic shelving collapsed, and the tiny chandelier worked its way into their gym bag. Backpacks were squeezed into the upper level along with the occasional clarinet and flute. French Horns and Bass Clarinets were by necessity taken to the band hall.

Classroom books were sometimes shared. If Charlotte had a locker near the math room, then Charlotte’s book was borrowed… often. Of course, Charlotte knew nothing about it and reported it stolen early on. Sometimes Charlotte’s math book took up permanent residency at the bottom of someone else’s locker until May when the books were turned in.

Boys’ lockers were different. They had gym clothes, athletic equipment, and a thin layer of peanut butter mashed into the lower layer of the space. I guess the bread fell out after third period that second day. Above that would be three unopened library books, four Booster Club notices, and a disciplinary note that should have been signed three weeks ago. Textbooks lost their covers early during the first grading period. Finally, the backpacks were squeezed into the top layer along with that expensive sweatshirt which never made it home.

I know, times have changed. Laptops, video games, iPads, and cell phones fill lockers these days. I guess they do. Maybe there really aren’t lockers anymore. I guess textbooks are digital, homework is emailed to the teachers, and grades are retrieved from the website. I’m not sure what they do about lunches, coats, and PE clothes.

Just Passing Through Surely, they still drag those band instruments to school. It would be hard to do that digitally.

Maybe the school supply list doesn’t include colored pencils, but ink for the printer. Maybe cell phones include apps to replace the rulers and pencils. Maybe the iPad and laptop have replaced textbooks and those little dictionaries we clipped into our binders. And I’ll bet no one has a glue stick or a little box of those reinforcements for hole-punches.