It seems like this time of year, the start of school, you see the infamous “Back to School Supplies” lists nearly everywhere you go. Kroger, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Dollar Store, Amazon for sure… However, I have yet to see them at the dry cleaners… maybe next year. Anyway…

We do not have to buy school supplies anymore, thank goodness. I remember those days. Walking into Wal-Mart was like entering a parallel universe where the “list” was rule and law. Walking up and down aisles looking for something so specific, it made no sense that it was on the supply list, to begin with. Come home without the correct item or not at all, “taboo’ed” you were. 

Checking emotions and fighting to get a spot just to get a binder, not a plain one, but one with designs. Elbowing your way to the front, crawling on hands and knees to the bottom shelf only to see that the store is out of whatever was needed. Then you spy the required item in another person’s basket. Your mind starts thinking, hoping they would look the other way…?

Pencils? Not just the plain old wooden #2 anymore. Are we serious about the options? Wood, plastic, mechanical, and then the lead size, .05, .07, .09? Pens? Forget about it… Scented ink, that’s what we need; students sniffing ink up their noses.

Notebooks, paper, markers, crayons, lunch bags, I can’t take it anymore. Then… there’s the backpack situation. You have to cram all that stuff in there? Parents load those backpacks with the teacher’s “much-needed” school supplies, and they look like they are going on a survival expedition. Eight hours later, that backpack now looks like it has been at war.

In the end, we hope we get what’s on the list. It is a saga that takes laughter, sighs, patience, and I even heard a few expletives said under their breath. It takes a mentally strong person to venture into the same charted territory year after year. But do it, we do.

While I hope you enjoyed the humor… Should it be that way? Should we, as parents and guardians, have to spend what we do on school supplies? Capital One Shopping lists that For one child, back-to-school supplies cost $597 (K-12 average). Click the link to see more “fascinating” figures. At what point do we say enough is enough?

Funding education should not have to come out of the pockets of hard-working adults and some students, for that matter. Inflation sure doesn’t help. Buying school supplies is just another stigma that separates the quality of education. While something as simple as a notebook and a few pencils creates a divide that continues to show education is not fair and equitable for all. Funding education should be the State’s responsibility, not asking parents to take out loans. But I digress…

Now, where did I see those scented erasers? I need a pleasant aroma while erasing my mistakes…

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…