PARENTS: FOUR BASIC BACK TO SCHOOL PRIORITIES

PARENTS: Four basic back to school priorities that have nothing to do with supplies
By
James L. Casale, Ph.D.


“First things first”
                                                   -Stephen Covey
-
The stores are mobbed and the sales are in full swing. The kids are hanging off the shopping carts, “Mom, I need this!”

School supplies are rocketing off store shelves, into shopping carts, and will land on the planet, School, in August or September. Newspapers are laden with ads for school supplies and TV commercials for school stuff have taken over where the Olympics left off.

 

Gee, am I that ancient? I don’t remember my mom taking me to the store for supplies or even asking me what I needed. In those ancient times, all I needed was a pencil and some paper. And I think the teacher gave them to me. How did I get through school without a highlighter?

 

Now, the vast array of required supplies includes so much more than pencils and paper and notebooks. Retractable highlighters, twistable crayons, clip boards, dry erase boards, shiny folders with graphics, three ring binders, pocket folders, back packs with wheels, thumb drives(what are those?) and more, now comprise the grocery list of items that are the “must haves”.

Hey-you elementary kids -don’t forget to bring in your box of tissues. At the last school I taught in, the students in the fifth grade had to bring both tissues and zip lock bags. I’m not sure why. There was plenty of sneezing but I never used the zip lock bags. Maybe the used tissues were

Ask The Principal