I have a second grader in the Lake Washington School District. Today was the Meet and Greet where we got to visit the classroom and meet the teacher--or in our case, teachers (they job share).
We also picked up the school supplies we had ordered through the school last June. I knew that if I bought the supplies myself, I might save a few bucks, but every year there are those one or two items that Target doesn't carry. Last year it was Tiaconderoga brand pencils and some odd shaped post-it notes. We have fun school supply shopping, but not when we are carting around to different stores trying to find one or two items. So, this year, I bagged it and I'm glad I did.
One mother I know is pretty ticked off because she couldn't find the four count bullet tipped low odor dry erase markers anywhere but online this week. She found the chisel tipped, or the stinky bullet tipped, but not the specified kind--except in the 12 count pack. Finally, she ordered them online this week and paid $5.00 shipping for the $8.00 item.
Some schools submit their lists to the local Target and Fred Meyer to be sure the items are in stock. I guess ours doesn't.
What gets me every year is the Pee Chee folder. Those who grew up in the Pacific Northwest and some parts of California don't see a problem with the term. For the rest of us who grew up elsewhere and, it's a mystery.
I found online that a Pee Chee folder is a two pocket folder made out of card stock. They come in different colors, but the ink is merely a d
arker shade of the base color plus some black. There are pictures of sports figures on the outside and Useful Information on the pockets like Multiplcation tables and measurement charts.When I was going to school on the East Coast we had folders like these, except they were glossy and made by Mead or Duo-Tang. I used to study all the tables hoping to one day use them.
On our school lists the last few years, a Pee Chee style folder was required. I even asked a woman at Target who said she was a teacher what a Pee Chee was and we just decided on a plain two pocket card stock folder. Further research on Wikipedia told me that PeeChees were no longer made.
I polled my friends from the East Coast, where I went to school in the 70s and 80's and no one had heard of Pee Chees except for my step mother who went to school in the 50's and 60's.
I don't even remember getting a list of school supplies to buy for my public schools in Massachusetts. In the first grade we were issued two wide grip pencils--one at the beginning of the year and one after Christmas break. Whoever had the least teeth marks on their pencil at the end of the year won a prize. I never did.
After talking to friends who grew up in this area, I found it was a generic term for two pocket folder--like Kleenex is for tissue. So, I just bought my daughter whatever folder she wanted--this year it was a shiny folder with the characters from High School Musical on it.
Well, now I am confused. In my daughter's box of school supplies we picked up today were two blue Pee Chee brand folders! And, the pockets were on the side, not the two pockets on the bottom which I thought we were supposed to have. Just when I thought I had it all figured out...
Will my daughter be ostracized for having the wrong folder with pockets on the bottom instead of the sides? Will she be the cool kid for going against the establishment? Is Zac Effron the new Shaun Cassidy?
I'm not sure how its all going to pan out, or if it matters. I think we could avoid traumas like these if the school would just order the supplies in bulk and pass the cost on to the parents with a fund for families who cannot afford them. I hope I didn't just volunteer myself for another PTSA project.