[Magdalen] pencils

[Jo Craddock]

I live in pencil. Usually mechanical (0.7 mm HB), but if I run across a 
stray Dixon Ticonderoga or Black Warrior #2, I can't help myself.

In the brief foray R&H made to "real" school -- we call it a homeschool 
field trip, as it lasted six weeks -- their supplies list included a 
*gross* of pencils. I asked their teachers, "If I'm helping supply 
children who can't bring these in, that's fine, but there is no reason 
to expect one third or fourth grader to go through a gross of pencils. 
What's the deal?" They break, they get lost, etc., etc. (What's the 
matter with a broken pencil? Now you have two!)

Back in my day <grin>, my mother, a teacher, handed out two pencils to 
me at the start of school. They were expected to last through Christmas, 
at least. She worked all manner of crossword puzzles, but wasn't brazen 
enough to use pen. I have a little pile of two-inch-long pencils 
gathered from around the house after she died, and her hand-crank 
sharpener still hangs beneath a kitchen cabinet.

Peace,
Jo

On 09/08/2015 7:13 AM, ME Michaud wrote:
> Just saw a tweet where a librarian was handing out pencils to
> students (today is the first day of school) and it made me
> try to remember the last time I picked up a pencil to write
> something. I bet it's been twenty years.
>
> AFAIK we don't have a pencil here in the house (except for
> drawing pencils).