School Supplies Parents Should Think Twice About Buying

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Last year, my son came home from school and complained that his Ticonderoga pencils were becoming painful to hold. I drove him to the grocery store and purchased a pack of mechanical ones — the kind with sleeves advertised as having a soft grip. The calluses on his fingers disappeared, and as an added bonus, his handwriting improved. It seemed like smooth sailing — until his new teacher the following year told him she did not allow mechanical pencils because they caused a distraction for other students. 

As both a parent and a former substitute teacher who has witnessed firsthand disruptions that can derail a classroom, I saw both sides. Luckily, she allowed my son to keep his pencils — but going forward, I made a mental note to be more discerning when school supply shopping. 

Other known nuisances in the classroom include backpacks with wheels (tripping hazard), plastic pencil boxes (notorious for leading to scattered messes when they break), and off-brand markers and crayons (shorter lifespans, hence the need to be replaced sooner). Then there's the category of "toy" school supplies kids favor for amusement, though they're not always functional. As primary educator and comedic YouTube creator Briana Richardson shared in a video on Bored Teachers, small novelty erasers are more likely to put holes in students' papers than remove unwanted markings. Richardson's least-loved school item, though, was the metal-ringed notebook. "One time a notebook like this scratched me so bad I thought I was going to bleed out on my classroom floor," she said.

On Reddit, conversations between parents and teachers pop up frequently, often leading to productive dialogue. In one thread, a parent questioned whether they were wrong for allowing their child to choose supplies that appealed to them, rather than sticking with the official school-issued list. A former teacher explained that in some classrooms, uniformity helps keep everyone on track (like designating a specific color notebook for each subject). In response to the student's chosen items, the teacher suggested, "Take those special things your child picked out and create a lovely special homework station [at home]."

Beyond the supply lists many schools issue at the start of each year to steer caregivers in the right direction, many parents (like myself) are aware that classroom supplies dwindle and wane midway through the year. In an r/Teachers conversation that opened with a question to teachers about which supplies they tend to run out of most, several teachers echoed the same one: pencils. While mechanical pencils can be controversial (save yourself from repeating my mistake), the teachers on Reddit said they can't stock enough of the Amazon Basic pre-sharpened kind — nor can they keep them from disappearing. "I went through TWO boxes of 500 pencils last year," one teacher said. Another responded by musing, "I swear to God they must EAT the pencils." Other items that teachers say parents shouldn't think twice about buying include art supplies, hand sanitizer and tissues, and books for classroom libraries.