Posted on 03/11/2005 6:02:26 AM PST by traderrob6
Why buy a new coat at Wally World when the local salvation army or goodwill has coats for pennies on the dollar?
The underlying deal here is that the schools want you
to buy THEIR packaged class room supplies. The products
include EVERYTHING but a backpack and lunchbox the kid will use through the entire year, including 2 large boxes of
tissues, a box of baggies, paper towels, etc. And each teacher gets to add in any specific article she wants for her kiddoes. The pack comes to about $75, and contains
mostly BRAND names like:
CRAYOLA (RoseArt not allowed!)
24 (pre-sharpened) TICONDEROGA pencils (no others)
CRAYOLA classic markers
CRAYOLA 12 Pack colored pencils
TEXAS INSTRUMENT calculator (specific science model)
8 colored pocket folders...specific COLORS (no designs)
2 REAMS of wide-lined paper
and the list goes on. Don't take the school's "package"?
Then go to the store and duplicate the list to the tune of at least $100. Walmart's pricing helps quite a bit! WHY?
Because like the schools, they buy in huge quantities!
But don't think for a minute, the schools aren't making a
profit on this deal with Crayola, TI, and Ticonderoga!
They are into it for the same plushy deals they get for
buying a classroom set of APPLE computers plus at least
TWO computers for each classroom in the building plus
APPLES throughout the offices!
Oh, BTW, you're not allowed to put your child's NAME on
any of the supplies, since it all goes back into the
supply room. The teacher requests supplies as she needs
them. SO, you see what's going on here. She gets
FREE pencils, paper, folders, etc. for any kid in the
school whose parents show hard luck stories and don't
pay for their kids' stuff. It's the same old school
lunch program on a more sophisticated scale. I'm told
those supply rooms still have lot of stuff in them at
the end of the year.
And what I love is you send that incredible amount of supplies - and NEVER see it again...
Why is it I always seemed to be buying Fiskars EVERY year (and the had to be that specific brand...) Or going on a hunt for a specific color folder... yet never saw it again... OR you send 24 pencils.. I think they must feed them to the kids for snacks... School supplies drove me absolutely insane when my kids were in public school. It got a little better once they were in private school - because thankfully in our private school the teachers were a little more sensible.
Now we homeschool - funny I have supplies coming out of my ears!!
Teachers are too spoiled today.
In my day we'd march to the bin and grab a piece of coal. Then the teacher would take us to the sidewalk to write up the math lesson. After we were done we'd wait for rain to clean the sidewalk off so we could do the next lesson.
In winter we'd use our fingers and write our lessons on the frosted glass.
OK, I'll bite...
What are the ziplocs for and why do boys and girls get different sizes?
Exactly! I've shopped at consignment stores for years and found some fantastic clothes (sometimes brand new/never worn with the tags still on them) for pennies on the dollar too! But I forget, this might hurt the "self-esteem" of the children that are receiving these clothes not to receive brand new stuff from the best stores.
I wonder what the wage is at the local stationary store? I smell a good story for a reporter. Or a blogger.
One of my students has an 80-year-old grandmother who works there and has no benefits...
Can you imagine the uproar that would emanate over a large corporation working little 80-year-old ladies to their thin & fragile bones 40 freaking hours a week?
WEA's site focuses on three sponsors of the Children's Fund. Saturn, Columbia Dental of Washington and Staples. I wonder if any of those sponsors have any 80 year old employees...or, would even consider hiring one.
Isn't the fund people really other people's money? You'd think that the fund would want to get as much bang for their buck as they could. Like I said, this wench is awful free with other people's money.
"So much stuff comes from China but last I checked, Wal-Mart isn't in charge of the Chinese workers. I know the libs are all for China, so what is the heartburn?"
Do you care about the Chinese workers?
Are you content for others to be enslaved as long as your needs are met?
Slavery is like cancer, it spreads, in fact, it is already here. You'll feel the pain soon enough.
They buy coats for kids from school funds??? What is that all about. When I went through school (mind you, I only graduated in 1998), I had to bring my own stuff, wheather it be pens, paper, notebooks, not to mention THE FREAKIN' CLOTHES I wear on a daily basis. Have I missed something, do schools (i.e. taxpayer money) constantly give kids coats and stuff. It seems that this is a normal thing at this teachers school.
A few years back, our school assigned all the junior high kids a poster project about the envrionment. It required a large sheet of green posterboard. Needless to say, the nearby store quickly was depleted of its dozen sheets of green poster board, and many parents spent literally hours driving from store to store hunting down the elusive prey. We must have collectively burned a couple hundred gallons of gasoline in pursuit of the Save the Planet Awareness Campaign.
I have no idea where half the stuff goes and I refuse to send extras....we don't supply ziploc bags or boxes of tissues.
When my kid gets sick then I send tissues.
It's maddening....
Actually, I try very hard not to buy anything from China because of the heinous practices of the Chinese government and the prison-slaves. I meant that the silly NEA types are being hypocrites since most of the stuff at Wal-Mart comes from China and the libs seem to think China is better than US. I am concerned about those people. I have missionary friends who work/worked there and I have heard very distressing things.
I buy American first, North American second, then any other country third, I make it myself, if possible, fourth and I only buy Chinese, if I can't get it anywhere else. Rarely does it come to that however.
I know exactly what you mean:
When I was dirt poor growing up in Jersey, I used to lay awake at night wondering why the schools didn't supply me with brand new Converse sneakers and the latest fashion trends like Levis jeans and cool Ralph Lauren polo shirts. I was stuck with Kmart blue light specials. I still bear the scars of not fitting in with all the rich kids and having to wear plastic tennis shoes, Kmart jeans and cheap imitation Polo shirts
My self esteem was damaged beyond repair.
That's why I'm a liberal whining cry baby today
< / sarcasm off >
Have these teacher-do gooder types never heard of Goodwill? I would have no money at all, if I had to cloth my four youngest with new clothes twice a year. Mondays--99 cents day!!
The libs won't shop at Walmart because of all the imported stuff "taking away jobs from Americans" but you can find the same people down the street at Whole Foods loading up on French cheese, Italian wine, Swedish Lingonberry sauce, Argentinian beef and (yes) Finnish-made Fiskars scissors.
It's all about style, herd instinct, and self-congratulation.
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