[Magdalen] pencils

[Lynn Ronkainen]

I draw designs in pencil (and have a lovely mechanical one that takes thick lead but I am out of it now - must look online for replacements) and because they are around the house in various spots I where might sit to sketch they often get used for list-making.
Jo, I too was always amazed at the amount of school supplies I had to provide for my kids after moving to TX. I think in Syracuse we supplied paper and pencils in the early primary grades. Each class has communal crayons, rulers, scissors etc. (isn't that how kids learn to share and take care of things??) Not only was the annual list of supplies needed amazingly long it included slate and chalk for k-4!! I knew some parents who would just buy the prepackaged kit every year. That's a lot of slates, rulers and protractors etc to go through. At our house we brought those hardware type items home at the end of the year and used them again the next. Probably another one of those things that scarred my kids for life...
Lynn

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 8, 2015, at 7:54 AM, Jo Craddock <jocraddock at gmail.com> wrote:

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).