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Losing the battle against back to school routines
Contributed by: Kelsey Page on 8/8/2006

With the fresh scent of fall, we are greeted equally with the scent of war.

Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Office Depot, Office Max, and many more have spread the battle grounds ridden with rulers, notebooks, lined paper, pencils, pens, erasers, even the almighty backpack. It's the back to school civil war.

Initially, parents and students are armed with a typically colored list of materials dire to the learning experience, and therefore future, of the next generation.

I cannot myself recall the days when a simple notebook and pencil would suffice as "being prepared" for an education. Aside from the crucial matter that a willing, and listening, mind is the most essential key in learning, many of these objects we are demanded to buy never see the light of day beyond what the zipper on the backpack or locker may bring.

Even as late as my sophomore year in high school, colored pencils made this mandatory list. Needless to say, I saved a few bucks, didn't buy the coloring tools (the most artistic class I was in was newspaper), and have yet to combust into flames.

Another incident, I took a class freshman year that asked of students multiple three-inch binders so that we may keep organized. Being a naturally freakishly neat and tidy person to begin with, I was frustrated at the lack of confidence on the school's part in the students' abilities to be able to keep track of worksheets and essays. Even the most sloppy of children and teenagers must someday learn from their mistakes, stressing multiple binders to show them the light of non-clutter will be either A) too confusing or B) fruitless because they will, invariably, return to their messy roots eventually.

Keeping in mind half of the requirements on the coveted list will be lost or never used anyways, the sometimes violent nature of these fall sales further reiterates the overall stress and annoyance at returning to school. Two weeks before I entered the sixth grade, I went shopping with my Mom for supplies. Half of the store was ripped to shreds. Calculators lay vulnerable, ripped out of their packages in a frenzy to test the battery size. Broken binders strewn across the aisles with the occasional ripped folder in accompaniment. I picked up an isolated, brilliantly-sparkled pencil for inspection, only to have another mother snatch it out of my grasp during her flight to the register.

Families usually seem angered at these scenes, probably because the school season brings not only carpools and bus schedules, but ballet, karate, painting, and other activities around to claim tanks of gas and free time once more.

Thankfully, this stage always passes into the comfortable routines that we grow accustomed to living, with or without colored pencils.

Kelsey Page will be a senior at Chatfield High School this fall.


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Brent Zimmerman
posted on 8/8/2006 @ 1:19:29 PM
Rated Story
Just wait until you get into college. Then instead of a $2 pack of colored pencils, your professor will want you to buy a $120 book that he wrote. If you're lucky, he might refer to it once or twice during the semester, but oftentimes he just wants to sell a few more copies. My advice - wait until you get a few days or weeks into any class before spending big $$$ on "required" supplies.
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Submitted By: Rebecca Zimmerman
posted on 8/8/2006 @ 11:39:31 AM
Rated Story
HA! Yes, I too remember the chaos of the back-to-school isle. It really did look like a war zone.
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Kelsey Page

Boulder , CO

Kelsey Page has posted 56 stories and 11 comments since joining on 9/21/2005. Kelsey Page 's average story rating is 4.92.
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