With back-to-school season in full swing, there are bound to be some conflicts between parents and teachers. Sometimes, even though both groups have students' best interests at heart, they just can't agree when it comes to school policies.
One mom recently shared her experience on Reddit with a controversial school supply policy in her daughter's class. Her story quickly took off online and generated a lot of interesting discussions.
Families across the country head out to buy new clothes and backpacks, as well as stationery supplies like pencils, crayons, and paper. It's one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year in North America and many parents have spoken out about how expensive the annual shopping trip has become.
Since many teachers have to pay for school materials out of their own pockets, some teachers ask parents to chip in and buy extra supplies to be used by the class.
Some teachers take it a step further and take all the students' school supplies on the first day and redistribute them to the rest of the class so everyone has the same materials.
The mom heard from other parents how they paid for school supplies for their kids, only for the materials to be given to other students. This left their children forced to use "crappy" supplies in the classroom.
The mom said she still bought the extra supplies requested by the teacher for the rest of the class, but when it comes to her own daughter, she'll be using the materials personalized with her name.
The teacher was not amused by this decision. Now, the teacher is asking the mom to send in generic supplies in place of the personalized ones and scheduled a parent-teacher meeting. The mom took to Reddit to get some advice on the situation.
"I hated this as a kid. My parents would buy Crayola and I would somehow get the Dollar Tree brand. Enough parents complained. Like, I'm sorry Susan's parents bought the Dollar Tree brand but my parents got me this and that's what I want to use," one Reddit user said.
"Why spend all the money on buying good supplies for your children and even getting extra binders for them if they're gonna end up with crappy ones due to exchanging... what exactly is their teacher trying to impart to them? I'm confused... is this something that happens in every school?" one user asked.
Another explained why it seems more teachers are doing this now.
"I think it has become more common now. If parents don't buy extra and send them in, I think teachers end up trying to buy more to make sure all kids get what they need," another user explained.
Do you think this mom was right to personalize the supplies she wanted her daughter to use, or should she just accept that the materials will be divided up to the class?
