"Reasons Why I Retired" and What's Happening Now
Reason # 17: School Supplies!
If you’ve walked into any store since, say, July 4th, you’ve undoubtedly seen displays of school supplies. As a thirty-year teaching veteran, it’s been hard to walk past and resist the urge to grab a few stacks of brightly colored Post-It notes or inhale the faint scent of new crayons. New spiral notebooks and fresh markers are my jam. I did give into the addiction recently and bought some school supplies for our church’s program, “Operation Christmas Child.” Buying school supplies is a hard habit to quit.
The majority of teachers spend their own money on school supplies. An article in Education Week dated August 2023, stated that 68% of teachers who get funding from their schools to buy supplies still purchase an average of $715 worth on salaries ranging from $35,000 to $50,000. For teachers who work in high-poverty schools, measured by the amount of students who are eligible for a free lunch, the outlay is slightly higher.
Some teachers can get a stipend for school supplies. Mine was $25 a year. It didn’t go far. I started shopping discount stores and Amazon early on, looking for room decorations to create a welcoming environment, individual whiteboards and Expo markers for student use, reams of both lined and blank paper, crayons, markers, and pencils plus colorful baskets to keep everything organized. And when my supplies at school ran out and I didn’t have time for a Target run, I just took them from my home office.
When I left my classroom in June, I arranged all of my leftover supplies on two tables and invited other teachers to come in and shop. Almost everything was gone by the second day. My friend Susan left the room cradling a large basket of Crayola markers, wondering where she could hide them over the summer. And Diana, newly certified as a Reading Specialist, fell heir to several textbooks from my own graduate school days.
Reason #17 in Why I’m Retiring mentioned school supplies that I could keep for myself. So while I was at Walmart, I also picked up some colorful pens and a few packs of index cards for myself.
Which I will never have to take to school.
If you were a teacher, did you receive funding for school supplies? If you were or are a parent, does your child’s school send a list of school supplies?
I was not a teacher and am a grandparent now, but love seeing school supplies on the shelves and browsing in a stationary store. One can always use a new pack of Post-Its, right?
I've never bee been a teacher, but I collect similar stuff -- just in case some ķids drop in and want to draw. I enjoy looking at the jars of colors hoping my hands could create something with them some day. Pain and stiffness stop me before I get started.