Sharpen your...laptops? The new school supplies
August 6, 2008
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Melissa Rayworth
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hand
sanitizer. USB flash drive. Magenta Sharpie. Clean socks. Quick — what do they
have in common?
Answer:
They’re probably going to be in your kid’s pencil case when fall comes around.
Long home
to an unchanging bunch of yellow No. 2 pencils and thick pink erasers, the
pencil case has gotten a makeover. Thanks to the onslaught of kid-focused
marketing and the growing presence of technology in children’s lives, those
perennial favorites have become so last semester.
School-supply basics face competition from a growing array of
products tricked out in bright colors and camo prints, or plastered with the
likeness of everyone from Spiderman to those ubiquitous kids from “High School
Musical."
The
function of these supplies hasn’t changed. Kids need to write and have things
to write upon. They need to transport work to and from home. And they need
tools for creative projects. But where the pencil case itself was once the
canvas for self-expression and coolness, today the tools inside play that same
fetish-object role.
“It’s
fair to say there will always be room for a No. 2 pencil,” says Target
spokesman Joshua Thomas. “But what’s happening is that these classic
back-to-school supplies are evolving."
In
addition, the list of supplies considered vital has grown, says Barb Kapinus,
senior policy analyst for the National Education Association. Items that didn’t
exist when most of today’s parents were climbing aboard school buses — tiny,
portable hard drives and scented hand sanitizer — now make the list in many
places.
Whether
teachers send home exhaustive wish lists or ask only for simple supplies,
shopping lists have grown in school districts around the country, says Jennifer
Olson, assistant professor of education at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C.,
and mother of two school-agers. Retailers add further fuel by offering their
own exhaustive back-to-school shopping lists, broken down by age group from
preschool through college.
Here are
some items that will probably be tucked inside pencil cases (which now come in
an eco-friendly variety made from recycled juice boxes) across the country this
fall:
Writing
tools: Pens and No. 2 pencils come in a mind-numbing variety of styles aimed at
school-age kids (think pencils emblazoned with motivational phrases like “Great
Job!” and pens topped with tiny screens that scroll through images of Hannah
Montana). They may also need washable crayons, colored pencils, washable
markers, highlighters, dry erase markers and permanent markers. (Even those
utilitarian Sharpies, long used by moms to write kids’ names in their gym
shorts, have become cool — now endorsed by soccer god David Beckham, Sharpies
in shades such as lime or magenta can be personalized with a student’s name,
catchphrase or clip art.)
Cut and
paste: Classic bottles of Elmer’s Glue are still popular, but glue sticks are
also in demand. Scissors (the ones you weren’t supposed to run with) are still
a must, but they’ve gotten a facelift, too. Now, says Olson, “they have left
handed or other special scissors to help kids master cutting.’’
Doing
the numbers: Calculators, restricted by some schools, come in a huge range of
styles and capabilities, from cute pink ones for basic math to graphing calculators
for trigonometry. Compasses, protractors and rulers are still around. But even
those have been tweaked — Office Depot offers a flexible ruler and protractors
come in vivid hues.
Data
devices: Spiral notebooks and loose-leaf paper aren’t the only methods for
recording information and transporting work to and from school anymore. Flash
drives (also known as jump drives) and CDs can be a necessity for older
students. Index cards and post-it notes also make many must-have lists.
Germ
battling: Are schools more germy than they were a generation ago? Parents seem
to think so — or marketers have convinced them it’s better to be safe than
sorry. Hand sanitizer, hand wipes and packages of tissues are now standard
issue.
Unusual
elements like clean socks (for erasing white boards) and zip-top plastic bags
(for bringing things home) make many lists as well.
It’s hard
to know whether the trendiest school supplies will help kids focus on their
work or serve as a distraction. Some districts advise against anything but the
plainest supplies. But the NEA’s Kapinus believes in using “this whole
celebration of starting a new school year” with new school supplies to
reinforce the importance of learning.
What is
clear is that the pressure on parents to buy a slew of slickly designed
supplies shows no sign of lagging, despite difficult economic times nationwide.
In the back-to-school area at Target, says Thomas, “literally, it seems
limitless what you can find, what you can do with a pencil box.’’
Bill
Jackson, president of the nonprofit parents’ advisory group GreatSchools.net,
says parents struggling with lengthy lists "shouldn’t feel the pressure to
have to keep up with the Joneses with this stuff. ... Whether they bring the
brand name pencil or crayon is less important than whether they bring their kid
generally prepared for school.’’