School Supplies
Mamacita's rant over on her blog, Scheiss Weekly, covers the essentials. I'm choosing to take a more nostalgic approach to this very serious problem... the problem of community supplies in the classroom. We're not talking about the box of tissues or bottle of hand sanitizer or chalk for the blackboard (markers for the white board?) that are logical for a classroom to share. We're talking about pencils and notebooks and folders. The thought of buying it and having to give it away and receive something lesser in return makes my stomach ache. But, I am getting ahead of the story I want to tell. Come back with me to 1959, as I enter third grade. Mrs. Josephs was our teacher, and she was elegant, polished, sophisticated to my younger-than-everyone-else's eyes. I was delighted to receive the list of "recommended supplies" and to thrust it into G'ma's hands the moment I got off the school bus. A return trip to the store was required. I was in...