For The Love Of God, Communal Back-To-School Supplies Are Necessary

It happens every July: Someone in my local mom group makes a post questioning the school supply lists. They want to know why they’re responsible for sending in two packs of pencils or six glue sticks. They want to know why they have to buy tissues and Clorox wipes for a classroom. And they really want to know why they shouldn’t write their child’s name on every individual supply. (That’s the one that makes them the most irate, I think.)

Communal school supplies have been around for a long time, whether you realize it or not. Lisa Patino, a veteran teacher, tells me that even when she was teaching in Florida in the ‘90s, school supplies were absolutely communal. “Kids had to learn to share. We didn’t ask much from parents at that point — I can't remember getting anything — but my budget was like $400 from the school, and things were cheaper,” she says. She also remembers not using individual things like glue sticks. “Too expensive,” she says, instead opting for the big bottles of glue and tubs of paste. You know, in a communal way.

And yeah, it’s a little overwhelming some years to look at your kid’s school supply list and see “one package of copy paper” included when you were hoping just to buy a pencil box and be done with it. But schools work best when everyone’s involved, from the teachers and the students to the parents and the administrative team.

We all know educators aren’t paid enough, and you’ve heard a million stories about teachers having to buy their own supplies for their classroom — so if you have the funds and means to help them out, why can’t you? The National Education Association’s 2025 review found that the average starting teacher salary in the United States is $46,526. Keeping up with inflation rates, that means teachers are making 5% less than they did 10 years ago — and they’re still spending between $500 and $750 of their own money supplying their classroom.

So if your problem with communal school supplies has nothing to do with being able to afford it yourself, then here’s something you need to hear: You’re just being an asshole.

If you’re insistent on your kid having their own set of pencils, fine. I’m sure you can let their teacher know. But then, halfway through the first semester, when your little Raelynnleebryva has lost all of her pencils, do you want the teacher to reach out to you to send in more? Do you want the teacher to just give her zeros on all of her work until you’re able to supply her with something to write with?

Or do you want the teacher to simply hand her one of those pre-sharpened Ticonderoga pencils she’s got stashed in a box from the rest of the parents who sent them in?

Like everything else in society, community matters. Even if you think your kid will be fine without a set of communal school supplies in the classroom, it absolutely benefits them, too. Their crayons are going to break, they’re going to be in desperate need of a pencil, they’re going to run out of room in their composition notebook and need another.

Jamie Roy, a Georgia kindergarten teacher with over 15 years in a classroom, tells me that even if a parent sends in labeled items, she will respect that decision and keep those items in a child’s pencil box — but still allow a child to use from the community bin whenever they want or need to. “They may choose to use theirs at any time, or may use from the community supplies. A lot of times they use it during centers, indoor recess, or free time.”

And can you imagine how much better a student learns when they’re being taught by a teacher who isn’t having to ration out glue sticks like they’re never going to be made again? My daughter’s fourth-grade teacher told me once that he was convinced the kids eat them because they go through so many. Glue sticks are cheap, and they all look the same — your kid will be fine without a scented pack featuring glitter inside the glue.

(But you know, if you really want her to have those glue sticks all to herself, feel free to buy them. Don’t ask for any of the plain .50 white ones when she runs out.)

Roy also tells me that the thing about communal school supplies is that it allows “all students to start at the same level with the same supplies for success.” But she points out that, depending on a classroom, not all of the supplies you’re buying for your kids go into a big bucket for everyone to use. “What becomes community — pencils, dry erase markers, crayons, regular markers, glue sticks.”

It makes sense. Because, along with helping out teachers, there’s also the added factor of communal back-to-school supplies being necessary for the kiddos whose parents literally can’t afford to send in extra glue sticks or pencils or, sometimes, anything at all.

“I have parents every year drop their kids off without anything in their book bags,” Lauren P., a first-grade teacher in Georgia, tells me. “I know for many of them, it’s an issue with money, so I don’t say anything. Because for every parent I have who can’t supply their kids with what they need for school, I have a parent emailing me that they’re going to drop off extra snacks or paper towels or pencils, whatever I need.”

There will also be parents who can afford supplies but simply refuse to send them in. Just like there will be parents who never pack their kids a lunch or families who don’t show up to parent-teacher conferences.

But at least you’ll be the kind of parent making sure that kid still thrives once they’re in the classroom, right? Wouldn’t it feel so good to know that any child who’s suffering at home or having a hard time getting what they need doesn’t have to worry about pencils or crayons when they sit at their desk?

Also important to remember? It’s not the teacher’s fault. It may not even be the school’s fault — budgets are dictated at higher levels than you can imagine, and honestly, change for public schools has to happen in a trickle effect. You’ve got to go way to the tippy top of the education ladder, and hope pushing for better budgets for counties turns into better budgets for districts and better budgets for schools and then better budgets for individual classrooms.

The Facebook posts over the next few weeks will be wild. Some will reek of privilege, people absolutely furious at the idea of sending in school supplies they’ve bought to be used by an entire classroom instead of their one precious kid. Some will be upset that they’ve been asked to buy only purple folders when their kid really wants a unicorn one. And some will be irate that it’s not their responsibility to take care of other people’s kids.

But if you want a village for your family, if you want a community of people who are healthy and happy and thriving, if you want a safe space for your child to learn and grow, you’ve got to be responsible for it, too.

And sometimes that starts with an extra pack of pencils.

source https://www.scarymommy.com/lifestyle/communal-supplies-are-necessary-back-to-school-shopping