My title is a real question. I might expand it a little. Are bus drivers required to fill the tank out of their own pocket? Are you required to bring your own flatware and condiments when you eat out? Okay, so you have to bring your own lunch when you fly, but you get the direction of the question.
So why do teachers need to buy their own paper.
I was given a case of paper at the beginning of the year. I have already gone through it and I am barely a quarter of the way through the year. “Where does it go?” you say. If I give a quiz a week and fit it on half a piece of paper, with 200 students that is 100 sheets a week. We have at least 38 weeks of school a week. That is 3,800 sheets of paper. A case of paper has ten reams of 500 sheets each. My math says that is 5,000 sheets. That leaves me with 1,200 sheets of paper for the rest of the year. My syllabus, if I use a font large enough to read, takes two pieces of paper. I have many other documents to send home. I get past my one case and I have not even done anything for class yet.
And I am told I get one case a year.
I have a choice to make. I can pay for paper out of my pocket or I can find ways to use less paper. I resist paying for it myself on general principle. I see how our school has money to put up bulletin boards to list students with perfect attendance. I receive large posters printed in complex colors about the Harvest of the Month. We have money to buy anti-bullying curriculum. The list could go on. All I do by spending my money is subsidize the public welfare state. I become an EBT card for my school.
The other choice keeps me from doing my job. I can give fewer quizzes. I can stop sending communication home to the parents. I can make students copy off the screen as long as the bulb lasts in my projector. I can do more oral work. I can shortcut the education of my students.
How will I make it work? I don’t know yet. If push comes to shove, I will probably spend some money. I know one solution that will not help: More money for schools. We don’t need more money. We just need to spend what we have as if the supply is limited. We need to make hard choices.
We didn’t succeed in voting the suckers out.
Maybe we should make bus drivers fill their own tanks.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.