Every year the students bring home a supply list of what the next teacher requires the student to have in class. This list can be endless and daunting for ADD parents and ADD children. Often the lists require parents to shop several stores looking for the obligatory items. This yearly ritual is not unlike the childhood scavenger hunts grownups invented to keep children busy for hours on end, and for a parent with ADD it can be extremely frustrating. The school supply list often seems as endless as the scavenger game, and some of the teacher items seem almost as absurd.

Take for instance the set of two red, two blue, and two yellow vinyl folders. Seems easy enough until you travel through three super Wal-Marts and a Walgreens to find only red, blue, purple, and orange, amongst the many decorative folders available, yet no yellow. So, now what, do you buy two orange ones or wait until the first day of school and ask the teacher what color she prefers? Shopping is often a frustrating experience for someone living with ADD.

Then there is the random items the one magic white eraser. One school has students sending in a box of crackers and bottle of sprite for the school nurse. The boys are to bring in one hand sanitizer and the girls are to bring in one box of Ziploc bags. Add two boxes of Kleenex per student, and four black dry erase markers. Most dry erase markers come in boxes of 12, so now you have six left over.

What really seems absurd, sending in two boxes of 24 pencils per student? All the pencils put into a community pencil box, so a student who needs a pencil can come up and get a sharpened one. This is not where the absurdity is, but when you multiply 48 pencils by 25 students, it equals 1200 pencils. There is no way one teacher or 25 students could possibly use 1200 pencils in one year.

What is the most frustrating is the lack of consistency amongst the educational teams. Some teachers want one-inch binders, others one and a half inch, while still others want folders and no binders. While a parent can understand a teacher is creative and has his or her own teaching method, parents cannot afford to buy each teachers individualizations. There no longer is a free education for our children in our society, especially if one has more than one child.

Parents should urge schools to use school supply packs. If a parent buys the supply pack, for $25 to $50 dollars, the pack arrives at the student’s home during the summer months. The $50 pack includes a backpack. Inside the box is all supplies the student needs for the next year, including labels with the child’s name for the student to mark all items clearly.

Sadly, this would end the yearly scavenger hunt for school supplies. In addition, it would make school supplies affordable for all families, and save time and energy for parents. All the teachers would have to do is standardize the supply list for the individual grades or educational teams and life could be easier for everyone.