Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Crayon Incident (apparently I hold grudges)

Younger Son was building a log cabin with his crayons last night. He marveled at how many boxes of varying sizes he had. He remarked, "Some of these must be from when I was in Kindergarten!"

He thought that was cool.
Apparently, he'd forgotten about the crayon incident in Kindergarten.
That's good.
Because I haven't forgotten how he came home from school crying over a crummy box of stupid crayons.

The school supply list had clearly stated that each student needed 2 boxes of 12-count crayons.
I saw it. Yes. It was clear.
But, it did not explain why 2 boxes of 12 were needed instead of one box of 24.
After all, the 2 bottles of glue on the list had the note: "1 to share in the art room, 1 to keep in desk"

And when the 12-count boxes are $1 each, and the 24-count box is on sale for 75 cents, I ask you as a parent, doesn't that make just common sense to get the one box for less than half the price of two?

So, my son comes home from his first day of school crying.
Why?
Because the teacher had instructed all the children to empty one of their 12-count boxes into a "community" crayon box, and keep the other box in their desk.
When my son approached with a box of 24, the teacher made him dump the whole box in because he hadn't followed the rules.

WTH?

HE hadn't followed the rules?

She let him pick out two crayons to keep in his desk.
Not twelve. Two.

So, of his bright, shiny new box of 24 crayons, he gets to keep... 2.

And please, for the love of all that is good, can you explain to me why there needs to BE a "community" box of crayons if all the children had brought their own crayons in the first place?

This incident still boils me.
But thankfully, the boy does not remember.
He has plenty of his own new, shiny boxes of crayons now.

And that crabapple of a teacher has since retired.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

O.M.G. As a teacher, I want to smack her. Like a Kindergartener would have bought the crayons himself. Geez.

For what it's worth, my 'community' box of crayons are the leftovers from years past and the ones left of the floor that nobody claims.

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Who: Thank you for your input. One less reason for me to feel like "that crazy raving lunatic parent". :)

Thumbelina's Mom said...

That is just a really, really mean thing to do. What the teacher did, not what you did buying the 24 crayons. I would've done the same thing.

Anonymous said...

Someone save me from teachers like that. My son starts Kindergarten next year!