school supplies every year — how does that work?

okay, honest question — i don’t have kids so i don’t know. i heard somewhere that elementary schools collect the kids school supplies at the start of the year. the kid doesn’t "own" his own supplies, and he doesn’t get them back at the end of the year. i guess whatever is left is donated or something?

parents, teachers — little help here. is this true? have you heard of this? most of my friends have babies or toddlers or i would just ask them.

if this has been going on awhile — no wonder kids have to buy all new school supplies every year. when i grew up, i think i used the same pair of scissors for all of elementary! and i remember going through two boxes or crayons in all that time.

if kids are using each others stuff, i can see how supplies would get wasted or damaged — they have no incentive to take care of their things because they aren’t really theirs! they belong to the "collective". i just don’t get it.

is this true? does this happen at schools today?

Yes, it’s true and happens often. It depends on the school, area and grade though. When my daughter was in public school, you had to pool everything. It was shared by everyone. I hated it because there were so many parents that didn’t supply their share and the good parents had to make up for it. On top of that, the first 2 years of school, my daughter picked out folders she loved and then they never used them. At the end of the year, I’d ask about them and they’d say that they belonged to the school and we didn’t get them back. This doesn’t happen at all schools though. As I said, depends on the school, grade and so on. Now that she’s in private school, everything belongs to her. She loves it. Also, at the beginning of the year, EVERY parent brought in the proper supplies. There were no free rides and everyone did their share.