Supply overload

To the Editor:

It’s getting close to a new school term and parents, grandparents and caregivers are rushing here and there trying to gather the items on the school list that the children were given at the end of the school term in June or during the child's orientation day for the young ones just starting "big" school.

Here’s where the question arises, when you start trying to figure out where you’re getting the money to buy 40 HOB pencils, 10 white erasers, 1,600 sheets of looseleaf, Post-It notes, so on and so forth. When does a child in fifth grade have the need to use 1,600 sheets of looseleaf, let alone go through 40 pencils or 10 erasers in a school year?

We’re told these are all items that will be used by the whole class, but I'm sorry; most people find it hard enough to buy for their own children let alone other children in the class.

I feel personally that in this day and age, with everything so high except the paycheck, we need to buy only what our own children need. Most of us buy for our children to take to school and duplicates so they can have the stuff at home and not give us the excuse they can't do their homework because they left something at school.

The other items on the list sounds reasonable for a fifth grader and that’s why I haven't mentioned them. Just wondering if others feel this way.

Cindy Caldwell

Lawrencetown