Instead of schools just providing materials for the classrooms, each family has to buy their own kid a dedicated set of supplies. You could pool the supplies and distribute news ones as needed, but if you do this for anything beyond tissues, parents start freaking out because “I bought MY child that SPECIFIC crayon set and it’s not fair that OTHER kids gets to use it because THEIR parents didn’t care enough to get them a special set.”
Buying school supplies is something I haven’t thought about for so long that it never occurred to me that it’s unusual or that there’s a better way to distribute school supplies.
What’s even more nuts is that this goes for teachers, too. It’s skilled labor, requiring years of college, in demand practically everywhere; yet the pay is shit and part of it has to go to stocking your classroom.
Meanwhile, the school board members just voted themselves each a new, fully-paid SUV.
Meanwhile, the school board members just voted themselves each a new, fully-paid SUV.
Sometimes, the school board just assigns themselves new “recreation centers” on school property that are for themselves only with administrative bowling alleys and the like and just about no one else even gets a chance to look in those very important allocations of scarce resources.
What the fuck? That’s a new one I haven’t heard before. Where I grew up even if the admins skimmed every last cent they could there wasn’t anywhere near enough money going around to build a bowling alley regardless of who was allowed to use it.
My district fucking sucks and the college I went to had the same problem: telling students that they will have to pay more and get less but then building “administrative centers” on campus that no one goes to but the PMC fucks and it’s basically just a place for them to fuck off and look down on everyone else.
I’ve told this story before but I’ll tell it here again and now: one of the most Jokerfying moments I’ve ever had as a teacher was when my district’s newsletter said that there was a budget shortfall and that we all had to tighten our belts and sacrifice and so on… and on the next page there was this big announcement of the poshest high school in the district getting a new stadium… for the same amount as the shortfall.
Honestly, I don’t know how common or uncommon it is elsewhere. It’s just something that’s never made sense to me and the explanation is always a circular, “we don’t have the funding.” Okay, so rebudget. Get more funding. Tell us who’s gatekeeping giving pencils to schoolchildren so we can get give them a fucking swirly. That’s not an answer on it own.
I would have done myself a lot less psychological damage during childhood if I’d understood earlier that, in cases like these, my autism is actually correct. It’s not that I have some deficit in understanding why these things are happening. It’s baseless convention and ritual all the way down.
The only problem with that is if people have other needs. I.e. in terms of different paper or texture feelings etc. However this, too, is easier when you know the standard and can see if that fits you.
Yeah, there would have to be stuff in place to make accommodations for sure. But we already do that for plenty of materials and needs. And currently most differentiation in materials is because parents want to splurge so their kids can have the “nice” things
Yes
Instead of schools just providing materials for the classrooms, each family has to buy their own kid a dedicated set of supplies. You could pool the supplies and distribute news ones as needed, but if you do this for anything beyond tissues, parents start freaking out because “I bought MY child that SPECIFIC crayon set and it’s not fair that OTHER kids gets to use it because THEIR parents didn’t care enough to get them a special set.”
Buying school supplies is something I haven’t thought about for so long that it never occurred to me that it’s unusual or that there’s a better way to distribute school supplies.
What’s even more nuts is that this goes for teachers, too. It’s skilled labor, requiring years of college, in demand practically everywhere; yet the pay is shit and part of it has to go to stocking your classroom.
Meanwhile, the school board members just voted themselves each a new, fully-paid SUV.
Sometimes, the school board just assigns themselves new “recreation centers” on school property that are for themselves only with administrative bowling alleys and the like and just about no one else even gets a chance to look in those very important allocations of scarce resources.
What the fuck? That’s a new one I haven’t heard before. Where I grew up even if the admins skimmed every last cent they could there wasn’t anywhere near enough money going around to build a bowling alley regardless of who was allowed to use it.
My district fucking sucks and the college I went to had the same problem: telling students that they will have to pay more and get less but then building “administrative centers” on campus that no one goes to but the PMC fucks and it’s basically just a place for them to fuck off and look down on everyone else.
I’ve told this story before but I’ll tell it here again and now: one of the most Jokerfying moments I’ve ever had as a teacher was when my district’s newsletter said that there was a budget shortfall and that we all had to tighten our belts and sacrifice and so on… and on the next page there was this big announcement of the poshest high school in the district getting a new stadium… for the same amount as the shortfall.
Honestly, I don’t know how common or uncommon it is elsewhere. It’s just something that’s never made sense to me and the explanation is always a circular, “we don’t have the funding.” Okay, so rebudget. Get more funding. Tell us who’s gatekeeping giving pencils to schoolchildren so we can get give them a fucking swirly. That’s not an answer on it own.
I would have done myself a lot less psychological damage during childhood if I’d understood earlier that, in cases like these, my autism is actually correct. It’s not that I have some deficit in understanding why these things are happening. It’s baseless convention and ritual all the way down.
The only problem with that is if people have other needs. I.e. in terms of different paper or texture feelings etc. However this, too, is easier when you know the standard and can see if that fits you.
Yeah, there would have to be stuff in place to make accommodations for sure. But we already do that for plenty of materials and needs. And currently most differentiation in materials is because parents want to splurge so their kids can have the “nice” things