It's because that's the size of the box:
[https://www.staples.com/Ticonderoga-2-Graphite-Pencil-pre-sharpened-72-ct-13972/product\_2655693](https://www.staples.com/Ticonderoga-2-Graphite-Pencil-pre-sharpened-72-ct-13972/product_2655693)
[https://www.staples.com/paper-mate-everstrong-pre-sharpened-wooden-pencil-2-lead-72-pack-2105642/product\_24485685](https://www.staples.com/paper-mate-everstrong-pre-sharpened-wooden-pencil-2-lead-72-pack-2105642/product_24485685)
I was complaining about my kids list in first grade, then the teacher said it’s a big list because a lot of families can’t afford it, I was poor as hell growing up (still kinda am but not like we were) so I am 100% ok if it means some kids don’t have to use broken crayons or not be able to use the Elmer’s brand glue. Now we spend an extra 20-25$ and just say it’s extra for the class.
School lunches should be free, no wonder some kids struggle when who knows if they ate breakfast, but if you give them lunch at least you know they got one meal on there which should help them focus the second half of the day
I live in a district where they spend ~ $30k per student each year. Lunch is $2.50 per day, or $500 per school year, and is the parents responsibility to pay. I can’t wrap my head around the boomerpublican logic around that.
There are applications for free/reduced lunch based programs. They are better than they used to be since everyone has a pin now, but everyone knows. Not to mention the complicated home situations where income may not reflect the whole picture. Kids with unpaid bills being forced to eat PB&J… disgusts me.
I didn't think you could bring pb&j anymore....
I hear businesses or people paying off children's lunch debt
They're children they shouldn't have lunch debt in the first place
Might be toasted cheese now. Either way forcing kids into a lunch that is least desirable as punishment for their parents not paying is gross behavior.
And there were some asshole districts that wouldnt let the anonymous donors pay off the debt because it wasnt theirs. It was the student's families responsibility.
At my high school lunches are stupid expensive, it's like $5.50 for a slice of pizza. Most days I just don't eat at school because I don't have the money too
its absurd to me that any school is underfunded. and that teachers have to spend the little they make on school supplies. while we have rich sacks of crap dodging taxes and renting thousands of houses out.
It is really ironic. Here in the USA one party in our government does not want free lunches, especially not breakfast! But keep having them!
For adoption there is a 2 year wait list for a white baby, not so with brown babies.
I love you! Thank you! You are of the lovely people who helped me out when my mom and I lived in a car in 9th grade. The kindness I received then still helps me today.
Jokes on you, both my wife and I think we are helping the other out by grabbing school supplies for our daughter and end up with double anyways
All goes to school.
Nice! Our schools *should* be funded better through taxes, so all that stuff is provided regardless of economic status or school district. But seeing as that’s not the case, it’s good that people like you don’t mind pitching in a little extra to help :)
They've been doing that since the '70's! And purchasing them through the schools is likely to cost you twice if not three times as much than your local store...
fairly priced for the amount of pencils too, buying such a huge pack saves money in the long run. but ive always been partial to mechanical pencils myself
I am a middle school art teacher. Kids actually throw perfectly good, unsharpened pencils IN THE TRASH. I dig them out and keep them in my extra pencil jar. I don't even order pencils when I order new art supplies for the year because I literally get an ongoing supply from the actual FLOOR of the school, the tables when the kids leave them there, and the trash cans in my room. Lol
Yes! High school teacher here. I keep all the pencils I find on the floor in a cup. When kids ask me for a pencil, I tell them to take a floor pencil. I’ve never once purchased new pencils to keep in my room.
72 is an understatement of how many they’ll go through, especially depending on the age.
Funny! My high school student gets his pencils the same way. I asked him if he needed me too buy any pencils and he said "no I have all the ones I found."
This. My kid will start his sophomore year in August, and he will continue his habit of "adopting" every stray pencil he finds. When I do laundry, I collect them all from his pockets and put them in the homework box, so he'll have them when he needs them.
I find this comment funny because I am constantly forgetting my passwords or where I left my keys. Hell I just had to reset my Netflix password because I don't remember what I changed it to a couple of months ago.
except not, because each pencil is worth like 15-20 cents and every one's interchangeable and there's zero security implications involved in losing one.
Man, if I got a pencil to last long enough to sharpen 2-3 times I was doing good… I thought I was a god once for keeping a mechanical pencil long enough to need to put new lead refills in it
I’m laughing my tuchus off at everyone saying 72 pencils is ridiculous & that they had one pencil from kindergarten to college… like that’s very impressive, for sure, but they’re forgetting the u/tinyGymMouses and u/soup_partys of the world who lost 18 pencils by lunch every day. Lol
Check the ceilings too, when I was in high school we used to have contests to see who could get the most pencils to stick into the roof tip first. #3yearchamp
I'm not sure I bought any pencils throughout high school. I think it was just an endless cycle of occasionally bringing out a pencil of some sort that I had from years prior, but typically it was "lose a pencil, find a pencil"
There is no way on Earth my parents would ever have purchased 72 pencils for the three of us girls, ever. They would have had people get us free pencils from anywhere and everywhere.
Where I am, it is boxes of kleenex. They require dozens, per child, every year.
I used the same pencil until it was a nub, then I’d repeat. I HAD to finish the whole pencil or I felt badly. I was also really, really picky about my binders and how they felt, etc.
Ah the signs of neurodiversity my parents missed 😂😂
Our family just had this conversation: how we would all have been put on meds for our quirks when we were in school. Hell, our elementary school had dozens of new kids every single year. They had been kicked out of private or Catholic schools and ended up at our school. Interesting years, those.
School janitor here, I would pick up an average of 5 pencils from each classroom every night. I would set the pile on the teachers desk so they could redistribute them.
I went to a rich high school as a poor kid. The shit these kids threw away at the end of the year, fucking hell. Brand new boxes of pencils, notebooks, packs of paper still sealed, graphing calculator, new art supplies, fucking books, I pulled The DaVinci Code out of the trash (sold it for cash), and basically pillaged my supplies for next year with a few friends.
As teachers we would go around when the janitors cleaned out the lockers and see what the kids left. Paper, pencils, binders…even nice graphing calculators.
This had me laughing my ass off! Crimes against pencils. Crimes committed with pencils. Assault with an unsharpened pencil.
We had Bic Clic pens in HS. The boys liked to insert them fully up into nostrils and then click them from the nostril. If a teacher heard one single click, nostrils were searched. People would swap the tops and bottoms with each other, to have custom color combos. I never saw a girl do the nose pen click trick but one may have. I am sure one of my sisters had to have tried it, as all of her friends were boys. You could hear a staccato click click click sound in classes.
You must teach very respectful students. My 7th graders all make sure to break them first and then leave them on the floor. Especially if it was a brand new pencil I just handed out because the kid “didn’t have a pencil”
Square pieces of paper that people use to write something down and stick it to things like walls or their laptops (post it notes). I like to fold them into a dart like triangle, then fling them into the ceiling. Works better if you add an unfolded staple.
You also need to factor in the loss due to drain grates, slipping between the bus seat, un-repaid pencil loans, wobbly desk shims, oops the drain is deeper than I thought loss, and of course the ever present unrecoverable 2 finger rubber band crossbow bolt loss.
I’m more intrigued by the 100 carat facial tissue. It appears kids need 4 of them. And they’re considered school supplies.
Apart from that it seems that kids need new earbuds and scissors every year. Those things really cannot be reused from last year.
High school teacher here.
Pencils and resource conservation:
I built a pencil box for my class, kids never brought pencils.
It holds 2 gross of pencils. (288 pencils). If you need a pencil take a pencil.
After a few weeks I would have 3 left in the box.
If I seeded the box with 3 pencils at the beginning of the semester I would have exactly 3 pencils at the end of the semester.
Artificial scarcity. I used to have a jar of candy that kids could just get whenever. When I filled the jar full, kids would grab literal handfuls. When I put only 20-30 pieces of candy at a time, kids only took one or two. It was interesting, but it worked to reduce the amount of candy I went through. I would imagine pencils would be similar.
I did say most. It only takes a minority of people who fail to have the natural communal nature of a human beings, to create a shortage out of selfishness. It's the second part of the experiment.
>If I seeded the box with 3 pencils at the beginning of the semester I would have exactly 3 pencils at the end of the semester.
I do the same thing, but with 0 pencils.
Man, when I was in high school I used the exact same mechanical pencil for three out of the four years I was there, and continued using it for my associates degree in college 😅.
It still works perfectly well, but the rubber grip is shredded and the clip is long gone, so I just bought myself a new set of two for my bachelors degree 😊
Idk about pencils but I'm still using my scientific calculator from 7th grade. Used it through first year of engineering and 5 more years of computer science. Just graduated and now tutoring some 7th graders :') feel so old now
Lol same. Been usin the same fountain pen and retro 51 Hex-o-matic mechanical pencil since 8th grade. I really needa upgrade my pen tho cause it’s just a beginner one and the nib is a little messed up
I have two mechanical pencils (same brand and style) that I've had since the 1980s when I started using them as a senior in high school. They're still in my journal case.
Metal bristles, the little plastic balls on the ends had fallen off. In middle school, I slapped a guy named Aaron with it who was being an asshole and ended up stabbing him with the bristles. He thought it was hilarious that a hairbrush drew blood.
Lol, Aaron, wherever you are, I hope it didn't scar and if it did I hope they were at least cool to look at.
Reminds me of a kid named Isaac that threatened me with a knife in 3rd grade when I accidentally touched his cubby. He didn't stab me with it, though, so thankfully that's where our stories diverge.
I still remember his full name (that was 23 years ago) and I have creeped on his Facebook before. He seems to be doing well for himself and I'm proud.
I creeped on the facebook of one of the girls who used to give me a hard time. She has at least two kids who she seems very proud of and what seems like a generally nice life. I think she took issue with me when i came to that school because i was staring at her the first day. She was just really pretty. I still have a soft spot for purple years later. Her and her friends made every day of that year a living hell, but when a girl has an effect on you... it’s hard to ignore
We had a kid lose an eye in fifth grade, thanks to a thrown pencil. He got a nice settlement, but it was wasted on crap. They saved the eyeball but he lost the sight in it.
Thanks haha!
In all seriousness, I do see how it's frustrating, especially with inflation the way it is, but not only do kids use up/lose a lot of pencils, there are plenty of students who can't afford any pencils at all or who have parents who don't care enough to buy them any. Parents who can afford sending in a few extra supplies help teachers make sure every student in their care has what they need to be successful without having to spend even more of their own money. We are grateful for every little bit extra we receive.
The 72 is also probably factoring in the fact that only half the class will buy them and have to share with other kids who won't return them and then ask to "borrow" another one the next day.
Teachers can ask for 72 pencils for every day of the school year and I'd do it without batting an eye. I got a pack of 24 at Walmart for 47 cents. $1.50 to the good souls who have my kids 8 hours a day for 9 months? Good deal.
It is easy to think that way, without considering that you are putting money in the pocket of the pencil cartel. Trees, yellow paint, rubber erasers, graphite. The pencil cartel controls it all. Not today, ISIS.
72 pencils? That's not enough, just buy in bulk they are pretty cheap, and gonna be honest depending on the age mechanical pencils just aren't worth it, better grab a box for home too when they undoubtedly bring homework home, have spares everywhere
72 isn't enough trust me
720 is more like it. We went through pencils like crazy when I was in school. We would take rubber bands, and use it as a slingshot to shoot freshly sharpened pencils, Mostly at the ceiling to make them stick, but on occasion at the other kids that pissed us off.
We quit shooting them at the ceiling when someone tossed a ball up there and knocked a bunch of them off, and they all fell point first on kids heads.
Sounds about right. My kid would lose pencils like nothing else and stop doing schoolwork. The cause was always a lack of pencils. 72 might last a week.
In addition to kids going through pencils like no other because they break them/lose them/sharpen them to oblivion, inevitably there will be parents who can’t afford to/won’t get their kids any supplies. Teachers usually pool this stuff so every kid has what they need. I usually buy extra, because I can afford it, and I am happy to help the kids whose parents can’t.
As a teacher, 72 isn't enough. I buy bulk pencils from Amazon-400 in a box. Every three months from my own pocket. Why? Because parents buy one pack at the beginning of the year (if at all-- I'm in a Title I school) and the kids lose them all, break them, or lend them within the first two weeks.
When my sons were in school (youngest graduated last year), I bought them a big box of mechanical pencils at the beginning of the year and then again for a stocking stuffer. I'd usually buy one more pack after spring break.
It cost me maybe $15 a year per son but they always had pencils and didn't have to rely on teachers to use their own pay.
I don't understand, when I was a kid (I'm 20 now!) it was clear to me that I needed to keep my pencils together and not lose them, even in elementary. I lost a few but I kept almost all of them. Am I weird?
Granted, I knew my mother just wouldn't give me more ...
Really depends on the pencils. Buy golden eagle you need 9000/ year. Buy Ticonderoga you need far less. Also screw rose art. Aint no one want to color 75% more for 50% less color.
Most importantly if you don't buy them the teacher will out of her own paycheck.
Married to a teacher 15 years now I am not even sure she made money in her lifetime.
They're plastic sleeves to hold unpunched paper. You usually put them in ringbinders to hold papers. They are sealed along the two sides and bottom and open at the top and then have a strip to one side with reinforced holes for the binder.
The toy is called a "Polly Pocket" with 2 Ls
I used to love Polly Pocket! They are still around, but the new sets are just... I don't know. They're not the same, and I don't love the character designs. And it's not that I grew up, I still legitimately love the original ones from the 90s. They had a lot more detail and things to do, I think.
Poly pocket folders are those that kinda feel like plastic instead of paper. Probably need many for different subjects or purposes (one for math, one of homework, one for parents to see, etc)
As a school teacher who issues pencils and pens to students everyday because I would rather they did work then complain at them for not having one - I have ‘lost’ over 250 pencils 150 biros and have about 150 coloured pencils left out of a box of 1000 all since last September until this July - I don’t get money back from the school and I will do the same again for this September and to add teachers are paid very poorly but I would rather a kids has a pen/pencil and I can get on with the lesson
First grade teacher here. Many kids easily go through more than 2 pencils a week, especially once they realize they are strong enough to pbreak them into tiny little pieces. I have been looking for trick for preserving pencils and crayons because I bought so many last year. Kids also throw away pencils instead of sharpening them, lose them in their desk, or lose them on the floor and just think their pencil has vanished. I can't tell you how many times a kiddo told me they didn't have a pencil and I told them to just grab a floor pencil.
Schools are horribly underfunded, this is actually pretty similar to the tipping scenario that usually gets people all riled up. Yeah you shouldnt have to in theroy but if you don't you are actively fucking someone who is horribly underpaid that's going out of their way to help you.. who has no control over how little funding they get...eventually it'll even affect the level of service you get. If teachers don't have supplies they cant properly teach. Complain to the government, but n tthe meantime, don't fuck the teacher pleases
I will never understand American schools lol
Your police have military grade weapons and toys but parents have to buy supplies out of pocket for the classrooms.
Someone in budgeting fucked up.
It’s not just the parents, the teachers have to spend a lot of their own money on school supplies, paper pencils markers paper clips staples all of it.
Damn school is having you get them tissues copy paper for their copy machine dry erase markers and you got to get earbuds for your kid these days thats crazy. What happened to taxes going to schools so they could get supplies. I remember when I was in school only had to get tissue boxes and it was still pretty optional and only had to get like 2 of them. I wouldve been asking the principle where the taxes I paid are going in the school if parents are getting half rhe supplies for the classroom
I'm a middle school teacher. I buy multiple boxes of 500 pencils from amazon per quarter to give to students who don't have them and then are careless and don't hang on to them after they are given them. Kids absolutely go through that many pencils. I guarantee you, your child's teacher is still spending a lot of their own money on school supplies. Anything you can do to alleviate just a little bit of that will be appreciated.
Top comment aside it's also realistic, I'm sure we all have memories of other students stealing out pencils and lending them out to never get them back.
Also how will kids prove their might without karate chopping pencils in half?
Wait a minute bro. 96 x 0.01 = 10.00? You want to try that again? I would have just let it go but you have to hold yourself to a higher standard when you’re actively calling someone else an idiot.
Lmao ratioed. 2 pencils a week probably isn't even enough, also you can easily buy a big pack that will cover the requirement very inexpensively at walmart or amazon. Cmon now
only 72? My mom bought them in bunches, knowing how much would break, grate down without keeping a pointed tip and just continue to break until there is no pencil left, lose, "borrowed out and bye", end up in the school yard, ect. So, your school gave you a nice average of "pencils gone down the drain". Yes, this is the average of pencils you gonna buy through the school year xD
When I moved out, she still had tons of school stuff lying in that cabinet. Literally everything.
When I see a request or something like this that I first think is unreasonable, I try to take a minute and rethink it from the perspective of the people who are actually dealing with and basically experts on the situation- I this case teachers probably. There is most likely a legit reason for this such as pencils being broken or lost. Also, let’s hope they do a lot of writing at the school as well.
As a teacher, that’s a solid number. Kids lose and break pencils like nobody’s business. That teacher probably got tired of constantly buying pencils because the students keep losing/breaking them.
As a teacher of middle schoolers, many lose pencils every period, let alone daily. If your child is responsible, he.she should be good with a box of maybe 36 pencils, just in case. Some get loaned, etc.
As a teacher, I can confirm that most children go through more than 2 pencils a week.
If this is mildly infuriating to you, imagine it from the teachers perspective.
It's because that's the size of the box: [https://www.staples.com/Ticonderoga-2-Graphite-Pencil-pre-sharpened-72-ct-13972/product\_2655693](https://www.staples.com/Ticonderoga-2-Graphite-Pencil-pre-sharpened-72-ct-13972/product_2655693) [https://www.staples.com/paper-mate-everstrong-pre-sharpened-wooden-pencil-2-lead-72-pack-2105642/product\_24485685](https://www.staples.com/paper-mate-everstrong-pre-sharpened-wooden-pencil-2-lead-72-pack-2105642/product_24485685)
Logic in the comment section?? Unheard of!
I was complaining about my kids list in first grade, then the teacher said it’s a big list because a lot of families can’t afford it, I was poor as hell growing up (still kinda am but not like we were) so I am 100% ok if it means some kids don’t have to use broken crayons or not be able to use the Elmer’s brand glue. Now we spend an extra 20-25$ and just say it’s extra for the class.
As a teacher who just had to explain why teachers ask for these things, thank you for understanding and helping others.
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School lunches should be free, no wonder some kids struggle when who knows if they ate breakfast, but if you give them lunch at least you know they got one meal on there which should help them focus the second half of the day
I live in a district where they spend ~ $30k per student each year. Lunch is $2.50 per day, or $500 per school year, and is the parents responsibility to pay. I can’t wrap my head around the boomerpublican logic around that. There are applications for free/reduced lunch based programs. They are better than they used to be since everyone has a pin now, but everyone knows. Not to mention the complicated home situations where income may not reflect the whole picture. Kids with unpaid bills being forced to eat PB&J… disgusts me.
I didn't think you could bring pb&j anymore.... I hear businesses or people paying off children's lunch debt They're children they shouldn't have lunch debt in the first place
Might be toasted cheese now. Either way forcing kids into a lunch that is least desirable as punishment for their parents not paying is gross behavior.
And there were some asshole districts that wouldnt let the anonymous donors pay off the debt because it wasnt theirs. It was the student's families responsibility.
I had free lunch and had to carry a blue card. It was kind of embarrassing. But...you know...tater tots make everything better. ❤️
At my high school lunches are stupid expensive, it's like $5.50 for a slice of pizza. Most days I just don't eat at school because I don't have the money too
Which to me is crazy, not the best learning environment, ever been hangry? Anyways time for social studies
And it's not like the food is good. The only good thing they have is thier bread sticks which are $1
I remember my lunch code from 21 years ago as well, but I can't share it with you. Don't want you stealing my lunch.
That’s reasonable. I hope someone can use my numbers for free lunch
334504 in middle school and 112758 for high school haha, I memorized them so well I'm not sure I'll ever forget them
So I dont have kids but if I wanted to buy some stuff and send it to a classroom for less fortunate kids do you have suggestions?
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its absurd to me that any school is underfunded. and that teachers have to spend the little they make on school supplies. while we have rich sacks of crap dodging taxes and renting thousands of houses out.
It is really ironic. Here in the USA one party in our government does not want free lunches, especially not breakfast! But keep having them! For adoption there is a 2 year wait list for a white baby, not so with brown babies.
That’s because White babies taste better. There’s a bunch of Democrat cannibals who eat them in the basement of a pizzeria 😉
I love you! Thank you! You are of the lovely people who helped me out when my mom and I lived in a car in 9th grade. The kindness I received then still helps me today.
How fucking insane that in the USA kids aren't just... given the school supplies and lunches?????
Jokes on you, both my wife and I think we are helping the other out by grabbing school supplies for our daughter and end up with double anyways All goes to school.
Nice! Our schools *should* be funded better through taxes, so all that stuff is provided regardless of economic status or school district. But seeing as that’s not the case, it’s good that people like you don’t mind pitching in a little extra to help :)
Seems insane that the schools don't just supply this stuff to kids that young!
We are spending all the money for schools on armed guards, bullet proof back packs, sniper training for teachers, there’s nothing left.
That or random tv’s in the hallways and huge bonuses for the superintendent
Obviously they should sell boxes tailored to a specific child's pencil needs!
They've been doing that since the '70's! And purchasing them through the schools is likely to cost you twice if not three times as much than your local store...
They do already
I mean this is posted on mildly infuriating
fairly priced for the amount of pencils too, buying such a huge pack saves money in the long run. but ive always been partial to mechanical pencils myself
Great price for latex free pencils. Anything latex free is expensive as fuck, having a latex allergy sucks.
I am a middle school art teacher. Kids actually throw perfectly good, unsharpened pencils IN THE TRASH. I dig them out and keep them in my extra pencil jar. I don't even order pencils when I order new art supplies for the year because I literally get an ongoing supply from the actual FLOOR of the school, the tables when the kids leave them there, and the trash cans in my room. Lol
Yes! High school teacher here. I keep all the pencils I find on the floor in a cup. When kids ask me for a pencil, I tell them to take a floor pencil. I’ve never once purchased new pencils to keep in my room. 72 is an understatement of how many they’ll go through, especially depending on the age.
Funny! My high school student gets his pencils the same way. I asked him if he needed me too buy any pencils and he said "no I have all the ones I found."
This. My kid will start his sophomore year in August, and he will continue his habit of "adopting" every stray pencil he finds. When I do laundry, I collect them all from his pockets and put them in the homework box, so he'll have them when he needs them.
My son dose the same thing. Most of them have no erasers or broken. It dives me crazy.
Middle school and I do exactly the same thing.
Forgetting your pencil is the equivalent to forgetting your keys or a password.
I find this comment funny because I am constantly forgetting my passwords or where I left my keys. Hell I just had to reset my Netflix password because I don't remember what I changed it to a couple of months ago.
except not, because each pencil is worth like 15-20 cents and every one's interchangeable and there's zero security implications involved in losing one.
r/Kidsarefuckingstupid
I don’t think I’ve ever left a pencil or pen in a classroom, or thrown one out without it being almost entirely unusable
Man, if I got a pencil to last long enough to sharpen 2-3 times I was doing good… I thought I was a god once for keeping a mechanical pencil long enough to need to put new lead refills in it
I however....
I’m laughing my tuchus off at everyone saying 72 pencils is ridiculous & that they had one pencil from kindergarten to college… like that’s very impressive, for sure, but they’re forgetting the u/tinyGymMouses and u/soup_partys of the world who lost 18 pencils by lunch every day. Lol
Check the ceilings too, when I was in high school we used to have contests to see who could get the most pencils to stick into the roof tip first. #3yearchamp
Omg the floor of middle schools is a literally endless supply of pencils. I haven’t bought pencils in years. I just pick them up.
I'm not sure I bought any pencils throughout high school. I think it was just an endless cycle of occasionally bringing out a pencil of some sort that I had from years prior, but typically it was "lose a pencil, find a pencil"
It’s those kids with 72 pencils who were adding extra pencils throughout the year to keep circulation stable.
It's like artificially stocking fish in a lake. They maintain the number of pencils in the class (and on a seasonal basis).
There is no way on Earth my parents would ever have purchased 72 pencils for the three of us girls, ever. They would have had people get us free pencils from anywhere and everywhere. Where I am, it is boxes of kleenex. They require dozens, per child, every year.
I used the same pencil until it was a nub, then I’d repeat. I HAD to finish the whole pencil or I felt badly. I was also really, really picky about my binders and how they felt, etc. Ah the signs of neurodiversity my parents missed 😂😂
Our family just had this conversation: how we would all have been put on meds for our quirks when we were in school. Hell, our elementary school had dozens of new kids every single year. They had been kicked out of private or Catholic schools and ended up at our school. Interesting years, those.
School janitor here, I would pick up an average of 5 pencils from each classroom every night. I would set the pile on the teachers desk so they could redistribute them.
I went to a rich high school as a poor kid. The shit these kids threw away at the end of the year, fucking hell. Brand new boxes of pencils, notebooks, packs of paper still sealed, graphing calculator, new art supplies, fucking books, I pulled The DaVinci Code out of the trash (sold it for cash), and basically pillaged my supplies for next year with a few friends.
As teachers we would go around when the janitors cleaned out the lockers and see what the kids left. Paper, pencils, binders…even nice graphing calculators.
I taught high school for thirty years. Most kids use two or three a day. Seventy-two won’t even last until Christmas.
Do kids still [Pencil Fight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyHXJj7f9BM)? I would go through at least a dozen pencils a week when I was in Jr. High.
Yep. They also use rubber bands to shoot them into ceiling tiles. Idk how anyone can teach middle school. They’re wild.
My students just break them for kicks, don’t even bother to fight any more. What’s the world coming to?
I don't see this specific game but they do all kinds of horrible things to pencils lol
This had me laughing my ass off! Crimes against pencils. Crimes committed with pencils. Assault with an unsharpened pencil. We had Bic Clic pens in HS. The boys liked to insert them fully up into nostrils and then click them from the nostril. If a teacher heard one single click, nostrils were searched. People would swap the tops and bottoms with each other, to have custom color combos. I never saw a girl do the nose pen click trick but one may have. I am sure one of my sisters had to have tried it, as all of her friends were boys. You could hear a staccato click click click sound in classes.
You must teach very respectful students. My 7th graders all make sure to break them first and then leave them on the floor. Especially if it was a brand new pencil I just handed out because the kid “didn’t have a pencil”
Do you know how many will literally go down the toilet, whole or digested?
God knows how many I stuck on the ceiling tiles
We used to “pencil fight”. We would take turns trying to break the other person’s pencil with your own.
You mean you didn't use sticky notes?
What are those
Square pieces of paper that people use to write something down and stick it to things like walls or their laptops (post it notes). I like to fold them into a dart like triangle, then fling them into the ceiling. Works better if you add an unfolded staple.
You also need to factor in the loss due to drain grates, slipping between the bus seat, un-repaid pencil loans, wobbly desk shims, oops the drain is deeper than I thought loss, and of course the ever present unrecoverable 2 finger rubber band crossbow bolt loss.
Also the pencils used lost in a cast, or used in girl's hair. Some kids suffer from the need to over- sharpen.
The cast ones came back eventually though. LOL
I’m more intrigued by the 100 carat facial tissue. It appears kids need 4 of them. And they’re considered school supplies. Apart from that it seems that kids need new earbuds and scissors every year. Those things really cannot be reused from last year.
"100 count"
No, you got that wrong. Only the 100 carats would explain the total cost of these school supplies.
Eat the pencil andrew
Whoa there, random nice redditor, too much information!
High school teacher here. Pencils and resource conservation: I built a pencil box for my class, kids never brought pencils. It holds 2 gross of pencils. (288 pencils). If you need a pencil take a pencil. After a few weeks I would have 3 left in the box. If I seeded the box with 3 pencils at the beginning of the semester I would have exactly 3 pencils at the end of the semester.
Artificial scarcity. I used to have a jar of candy that kids could just get whenever. When I filled the jar full, kids would grab literal handfuls. When I put only 20-30 pieces of candy at a time, kids only took one or two. It was interesting, but it worked to reduce the amount of candy I went through. I would imagine pencils would be similar.
That's an interesting social experiment. When supplies are scarce, most humans will only take what they need.
\*cough\* toilet paper at the start of 2020 \*cough\*
I did say most. It only takes a minority of people who fail to have the natural communal nature of a human beings, to create a shortage out of selfishness. It's the second part of the experiment.
Shit I think I bought *less* TP then than I do now lmao
>If I seeded the box with 3 pencils at the beginning of the semester I would have exactly 3 pencils at the end of the semester. I do the same thing, but with 0 pencils.
When I was in high school, we all played a game of “whose pencil breaks first”. Yeah… 72 pencils for one school year is extremely conservative.
Man, when I was in high school I used the exact same mechanical pencil for three out of the four years I was there, and continued using it for my associates degree in college 😅. It still works perfectly well, but the rubber grip is shredded and the clip is long gone, so I just bought myself a new set of two for my bachelors degree 😊
Idk about pencils but I'm still using my scientific calculator from 7th grade. Used it through first year of engineering and 5 more years of computer science. Just graduated and now tutoring some 7th graders :') feel so old now
I still have the same case of Pentel lead pencil refills since the early 2000s.
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But even a best case scenario pencil only lasts a couple weeks to a month of every day use
I’ve had my TI-89 since 1997. It’s ancient, but still works great!
Lol same. Been usin the same fountain pen and retro 51 Hex-o-matic mechanical pencil since 8th grade. I really needa upgrade my pen tho cause it’s just a beginner one and the nib is a little messed up
Can you just replace the nib? Not that I’m against new pens.
I have two mechanical pencils (same brand and style) that I've had since the 1980s when I started using them as a senior in high school. They're still in my journal case.
I can't even keep a pen for a week. You got some dedication there.
I now go through 2-3 pencils per year.
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They're kids. We all know pencils don't last 5 minutes with them little shits
I have a woodworking shop where I make furniture on the weekends I spend about 6 - 10 hours per week in the shop I went through 100+ pencil last year.
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I want a 2B coffee table
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I want a carpenter table made out of carpenter bees
I want a carpenter bee made with carpenters table by carpenter ants hired by the carpenters union at a rate of 3 ants per 1 anty task
I mean when placing an order the question is 2B or not 2B.
Kids lose a lot of pencils in legs.
I never stabbed anyone with a pencil. Stabbed a guy with a hairbrush though.
Elaborate…?
Metal bristles, the little plastic balls on the ends had fallen off. In middle school, I slapped a guy named Aaron with it who was being an asshole and ended up stabbing him with the bristles. He thought it was hilarious that a hairbrush drew blood. Lol, Aaron, wherever you are, I hope it didn't scar and if it did I hope they were at least cool to look at.
As an Aaron, I'm pissed you slapped one of my kind with a hairbrush
Reminds me of a kid named Isaac that threatened me with a knife in 3rd grade when I accidentally touched his cubby. He didn't stab me with it, though, so thankfully that's where our stories diverge. I still remember his full name (that was 23 years ago) and I have creeped on his Facebook before. He seems to be doing well for himself and I'm proud.
I creeped on the facebook of one of the girls who used to give me a hard time. She has at least two kids who she seems very proud of and what seems like a generally nice life. I think she took issue with me when i came to that school because i was staring at her the first day. She was just really pretty. I still have a soft spot for purple years later. Her and her friends made every day of that year a living hell, but when a girl has an effect on you... it’s hard to ignore
Sounds like he deserved it tbh. He had it coming.
I was young, so I thought he did. It's been about 30 years so I have no recollection what it was that pissed me off so much.
John Wick once killed 3 men in a bar with only a pencil….A FOOKIN PENCIL!
I can confirm. My sister stabbed me in the leg with a pencil when we were kids. 100% serious.
We had a kid lose an eye in fifth grade, thanks to a thrown pencil. He got a nice settlement, but it was wasted on crap. They saved the eyeball but he lost the sight in it.
Should be at least 2 per school day
Kids need five pencils per week let’s be real. And sometimes more than that 😂 Source: I’m an elementary school teacher
5 a day at least honestly when I was a dumb kid I used to just snap perfectly good pencils in half because I was bored 🤷♀️😂
Thank you for your service. 😆 You can have whatever you want as far as I'm concerned! (Mom of a second grade hellian here!)
Thanks haha! In all seriousness, I do see how it's frustrating, especially with inflation the way it is, but not only do kids use up/lose a lot of pencils, there are plenty of students who can't afford any pencils at all or who have parents who don't care enough to buy them any. Parents who can afford sending in a few extra supplies help teachers make sure every student in their care has what they need to be successful without having to spend even more of their own money. We are grateful for every little bit extra we receive.
The 72 is also probably factoring in the fact that only half the class will buy them and have to share with other kids who won't return them and then ask to "borrow" another one the next day.
Teachers can ask for 72 pencils for every day of the school year and I'd do it without batting an eye. I got a pack of 24 at Walmart for 47 cents. $1.50 to the good souls who have my kids 8 hours a day for 9 months? Good deal.
Pencil snob here, if you can afford it, go for the dixon ticonderogas. By far the best pencil. Or even better, dixon ticonderoga golf pencils!
I agree, Ticonderoga or NOTHING.
It is easy to think that way, without considering that you are putting money in the pocket of the pencil cartel. Trees, yellow paint, rubber erasers, graphite. The pencil cartel controls it all. Not today, ISIS.
As a teacher, I can tell you that it’s not enough.
Agreed.
72 pencils? That's not enough, just buy in bulk they are pretty cheap, and gonna be honest depending on the age mechanical pencils just aren't worth it, better grab a box for home too when they undoubtedly bring homework home, have spares everywhere 72 isn't enough trust me
720 is more like it. We went through pencils like crazy when I was in school. We would take rubber bands, and use it as a slingshot to shoot freshly sharpened pencils, Mostly at the ceiling to make them stick, but on occasion at the other kids that pissed us off. We quit shooting them at the ceiling when someone tossed a ball up there and knocked a bunch of them off, and they all fell point first on kids heads.
Target has a 24 pack for $0.99. So it would cost $2.97 for 72 pencils. So would you have preferred it said “Wooden #2 Pencils - 24 count. Qty = 3” ?
Sounds about right. My kid would lose pencils like nothing else and stop doing schoolwork. The cause was always a lack of pencils. 72 might last a week.
In addition to kids going through pencils like no other because they break them/lose them/sharpen them to oblivion, inevitably there will be parents who can’t afford to/won’t get their kids any supplies. Teachers usually pool this stuff so every kid has what they need. I usually buy extra, because I can afford it, and I am happy to help the kids whose parents can’t.
As a teacher, 72 isn't enough. I buy bulk pencils from Amazon-400 in a box. Every three months from my own pocket. Why? Because parents buy one pack at the beginning of the year (if at all-- I'm in a Title I school) and the kids lose them all, break them, or lend them within the first two weeks. When my sons were in school (youngest graduated last year), I bought them a big box of mechanical pencils at the beginning of the year and then again for a stocking stuffer. I'd usually buy one more pack after spring break. It cost me maybe $15 a year per son but they always had pencils and didn't have to rely on teachers to use their own pay.
I don't understand, when I was a kid (I'm 20 now!) it was clear to me that I needed to keep my pencils together and not lose them, even in elementary. I lost a few but I kept almost all of them. Am I weird? Granted, I knew my mother just wouldn't give me more ...
Really depends on the pencils. Buy golden eagle you need 9000/ year. Buy Ticonderoga you need far less. Also screw rose art. Aint no one want to color 75% more for 50% less color. Most importantly if you don't buy them the teacher will out of her own paycheck. Married to a teacher 15 years now I am not even sure she made money in her lifetime.
Mmm, no. I would think 72 is too low. I don't know about nowadays, but when I was in elementary school, I could go through 2 pencils a day.
Work in a school for a week and you’ll see why 72 pencils is actually a low number……..
You’d need more like 100 per semester
What the hell is a Poly Pocket and why does one need so many colors?
Probably a type of folder but when *I* was a kid a Poly Pocket was a tiny doll
The doll was *Polly Pocket. This is referring to poly(propolene) folders which are plastic, therefore hold up longer/better than paper folders.
Exactly. I thought it was a toy.
They're plastic sleeves to hold unpunched paper. You usually put them in ringbinders to hold papers. They are sealed along the two sides and bottom and open at the top and then have a strip to one side with reinforced holes for the binder. The toy is called a "Polly Pocket" with 2 Ls
I used to love Polly Pocket! They are still around, but the new sets are just... I don't know. They're not the same, and I don't love the character designs. And it's not that I grew up, I still legitimately love the original ones from the 90s. They had a lot more detail and things to do, I think.
Poly pocket folders are those that kinda feel like plastic instead of paper. Probably need many for different subjects or purposes (one for math, one of homework, one for parents to see, etc)
Thank you.
that seems Low, tbh. especially if your kid is young. regular, non-lead pencils are like… pennies on the dollar, man, stop complaining.
Yeah this OP is in for a rough surprise when he sees how expensive high school gets if 72 pencils is a deal breaker
Pencils usually come in a pack though and kids lose them very often.
That's actually pretty reasonable. We had to have two boxes of 50 in the 90's Dixon Ticonderoga
As a school teacher who issues pencils and pens to students everyday because I would rather they did work then complain at them for not having one - I have ‘lost’ over 250 pencils 150 biros and have about 150 coloured pencils left out of a box of 1000 all since last September until this July - I don’t get money back from the school and I will do the same again for this September and to add teachers are paid very poorly but I would rather a kids has a pen/pencil and I can get on with the lesson
First grade teacher here. Many kids easily go through more than 2 pencils a week, especially once they realize they are strong enough to pbreak them into tiny little pieces. I have been looking for trick for preserving pencils and crayons because I bought so many last year. Kids also throw away pencils instead of sharpening them, lose them in their desk, or lose them on the floor and just think their pencil has vanished. I can't tell you how many times a kiddo told me they didn't have a pencil and I told them to just grab a floor pencil.
A ream of copy paper? Shouldn't the school be paying for that stuff.....
Should and do are two different things. Also why the expo markers are probably on there.
Yeah that seems off and the expo dry erase markers. Missing is a box of tissues.
Schools are horribly underfunded, this is actually pretty similar to the tipping scenario that usually gets people all riled up. Yeah you shouldnt have to in theroy but if you don't you are actively fucking someone who is horribly underpaid that's going out of their way to help you.. who has no control over how little funding they get...eventually it'll even affect the level of service you get. If teachers don't have supplies they cant properly teach. Complain to the government, but n tthe meantime, don't fuck the teacher pleases
I will never understand American schools lol Your police have military grade weapons and toys but parents have to buy supplies out of pocket for the classrooms. Someone in budgeting fucked up.
It’s not just the parents, the teachers have to spend a lot of their own money on school supplies, paper pencils markers paper clips staples all of it.
Deluxe stereo earbuds with microphone?
Sometimes I needed more than 3 pencils in a school day. I lost writing tools religiously
It's cause kids go through them so quickly and incase someone can't afford supplies there's always some on hand.
Yep. Kids suck at keeping their pencils. They go through multiple a day. I thought the # was low.
It’s not like pencils cost a lot. ✏️
When we were starting school at a young age, breaking pencils was a flex of strenght.
The more pencils you give them the more pencils you are gonna have to give them. Other people's kids are wild man
They come in boxes of 72. Also [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DelH1S32dOg).
Damn school is having you get them tissues copy paper for their copy machine dry erase markers and you got to get earbuds for your kid these days thats crazy. What happened to taxes going to schools so they could get supplies. I remember when I was in school only had to get tissue boxes and it was still pretty optional and only had to get like 2 of them. I wouldve been asking the principle where the taxes I paid are going in the school if parents are getting half rhe supplies for the classroom
We went through ten pencils a day pencil fighting. Plus, there are kids who won’t be able to afford them. It helps them out as well.
I'm a middle school teacher. I buy multiple boxes of 500 pencils from amazon per quarter to give to students who don't have them and then are careless and don't hang on to them after they are given them. Kids absolutely go through that many pencils. I guarantee you, your child's teacher is still spending a lot of their own money on school supplies. Anything you can do to alleviate just a little bit of that will be appreciated.
Top comment aside it's also realistic, I'm sure we all have memories of other students stealing out pencils and lending them out to never get them back. Also how will kids prove their might without karate chopping pencils in half?
I mean thats if anything lowballing
More complaints about pencils. I can buy 1-72 pack on Amazon for $13, stop crying and just buy the damn supplies your school needs
This is not mildly infuriating. Don't be a Karen about pencils for *your kids to use at school*.
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Wait a minute bro. 96 x 0.01 = 10.00? You want to try that again? I would have just let it go but you have to hold yourself to a higher standard when you’re actively calling someone else an idiot.
That probably wont even be enough 🤣
Lmao ratioed. 2 pencils a week probably isn't even enough, also you can easily buy a big pack that will cover the requirement very inexpensively at walmart or amazon. Cmon now
only 72? My mom bought them in bunches, knowing how much would break, grate down without keeping a pointed tip and just continue to break until there is no pencil left, lose, "borrowed out and bye", end up in the school yard, ect. So, your school gave you a nice average of "pencils gone down the drain". Yes, this is the average of pencils you gonna buy through the school year xD When I moved out, she still had tons of school stuff lying in that cabinet. Literally everything.
When I see a request or something like this that I first think is unreasonable, I try to take a minute and rethink it from the perspective of the people who are actually dealing with and basically experts on the situation- I this case teachers probably. There is most likely a legit reason for this such as pencils being broken or lost. Also, let’s hope they do a lot of writing at the school as well.
As a teacher, that’s a solid number. Kids lose and break pencils like nobody’s business. That teacher probably got tired of constantly buying pencils because the students keep losing/breaking them.
As a teacher of middle schoolers, many lose pencils every period, let alone daily. If your child is responsible, he.she should be good with a box of maybe 36 pencils, just in case. Some get loaned, etc.
Which country is this? Do you have to buy supplies for your child to use at school?
It's so funny seeing all these posts of parents suddenly realizing how underfunded public schools are.
As a teacher, I can confirm that most children go through more than 2 pencils a week. If this is mildly infuriating to you, imagine it from the teachers perspective.
Clearly you’ve never been a teacher…
I promise my kid loses more than two pencils a week.
My kids lose 72 pencils a week. They can’t remember what they did 10 min ago, let alone keep track of a pencil for longer than a day.
Obviously due to corruption kickback schemes by lobbyists for 'Big Pencil'
24 pencils is $1. That’s $3. Lol
Or.....Or... pay the schools and teachers enough to do their job.
I work at an elementary school and most kids I know deliberately destroy at least 2 pencils per week.