What a travesty that some school in Florida can’t even afford toilet paper. I mean, how much can that cheap-ass bark-flecked flexible cardboard scrap cost? They can bail out greedy corporate bastards, but they can’t let a kid wipe it after a pee?
When I was a child, students who lived far enough away rode in yellow army tank-like vehicles called SCHOOL BUSES (after they did their morning chores feeding the dinosaurs). They were provided by the school district and they were FREE. Children piled onto the bus, fighting over seats, often ripping a shirt or two. Girls walked down the gauntlet between the seats while boys lifted up their dresses and pulled the pig tails of those who sat in front of them.
In high school, I took the bus to school and every day, we’d yell in unison “Turn! Turn! Turn!” to the bus driver because we wanted her to take the short cut home instead of the school mandated route. One day, after we’d boarded the bus after school, the vice-principal came on board and lectured all of us and threatened us with severe punishment, like, one hour in the stockyards.
But these days, kids don’t enjoy this fringe benefit. Because the schools can’t AFFORD it.
When I was in junior high, we had this class called P.E. It’s where children ran around outside. It’s also where this bully kept accusing me of staring at her. “What are YOU looking at?” she’d hiss at me. Actually, P.E. was good for me because I sure ran a lot.
When I was in elementary school, they had just invented these things called sidewalks. And we used them to WALK to school. Eleven blocks for me. Each way! Teachers would pin permission slips or other notices to our clothing so we could wander home looking like morons who couldn’t be trusted to deliver the information to our parents.
But by walking to school, children got EXERCISE. For FREE! No expensive uniforms or equipment required. No league fees to pay. No fundraising for parents to bother their coworkers with.
If you don’t walk to school, how can the school boy you’re crushing on walk you home? How can you sneak cigarettes from your negatively influentual friends? And there’s no chance of peeing your pants if you don’t have a nice long peepee-dancing walk ahead of you. (Oops, did I just confess that out loud?)
Parents: don’t you see that by driving your kids to school, you are depriving them of these sacred experiences?
And another thing: we never studied for federally mandated exams. We just learned stuff. And we were never left behind.
Without the unnecessary task of meeting administrative standards we had time for things like art (where kids could eat paste), and music (my flute teacher was an alcoholic), and nap time (my teacher, Mr. Stanley, poked me in the chest one day for talking to my neighbor instead of lying quietly on my towel).
So yeah, why can’t the school districts afford THAT anymore?
Call me conservative. Call me traditional. But I believe the day we make our kids bring their own toilet paper to school is the day we’ve lost our priorities in public spending. Of course, I suppose if they have to pee their pants on the way to school, they’ve got protection.
Abigail from Piece of Cake is walking for MS. She can tell you why she’s walking HERE.
If you’ve got an extra few bucks (no amount is too small), please consider a tax-deductible donation to help her reach her goal of $2500. Her direct MS donation page is HERE.
Crushes? Cigarettes? My daughter WAS allowed to walk to and from school, until you alerted me to the dangers of legal drugs and hormonal teen boys. Now she will be chauffeured in a TANK. Dayumn.
I see no problem with this since most teachers don’t even give kids a pass to go to the bathroom. BYOTP.
In my school we’re supposed to limit the handouts that we distribute and let them take notes themselves and access the class website at home.
If the TP and tissues means that another teacher can be kept, I’m all for it. As long as they don’t touch the teacher workrooms bathroom with this rule.
Loved the post. Yes brought back memories of my school days. I remember even back then that the school district discontinued busing the athletes to the away games. I thought that was a PITA. You had to find your own ride to the game. I walked to elementary and junior high school, but finally got to ride a school bus to high school. I was thrilled not to have to walk any longer. For 22 years now, I drive the school bus. It’s amazing how different districts run. I have worked for 3 districts, and one private company in 3 states. Our funding here doesn’t seem to have been cut much. I drive in a rural district and my route is 125 miles each day. Most of our kids get picked up at their driveways. Some of those driveways can be pretty long. Some kids walk close to a mile. When we do sports trips sometimes we will drive 300 miles one way for one game. I think that’s a little bit crazy, but it pays well. So far my school districts’ wallet seems to still be open. Just today I asked my boss for a $300 backpack type vacuum to clean my bus. He seemed to approve of the idea. So far we haven’t been asked to bring toilet paper in, but for years our kids had to bring tissues. School lunch prices are what get me. When I was in elementary school the lunch was .40c, and that included milk. Today it costs $2.30 to eat lunch. That can add up real quick. An extra milk is now .40c. Wow…
OMG, heart this post. Is P.E even a required class anymore? I think the little chubbies can elect out of this. I also think where I live you either take art or music you can’t have both. It’s really a shame about our public schools!
We don’t have to send TP to school, but each kid is asked to bring one box of kleenex at the beginning of the school year. The schools won’t pay for it anymore. And yes, our buses cost a fortune … and aren’t even offered on many routes anymore. It sucks.
can I send this to our school board?? PLEEEEEEZE??
It seems as times goes by and the world “gets smarter” the worse things become. WTF?
I’m confused. Not only do you have to send kleenex now you have to send toilet paper? Can’t the kids just use their math test instead?
No toliet paper!? (haven’t clicked that link yet) What in the world?
There were a couple years when my teacher mom had to supply the copy paper for her copies at school. I thought that was ridiculous and over the top…but no toliet paper? Goodness!
Hi! Newcomer to your blog!
Have you ever had to walk from one class to another holding the frock hem of the girl in front of you in line?!! We had to do that and oh, what fun to lift the hemline high and reveal the color of her panties!!! Of course, some one else was doing that to me too!! (this was when we were innocent 6 year old babes)
Do stop over at my blog when you can!
I actually hate having my daughter walk to the bus stop around the corner from our house because we have a registered sexual predator living two blocks away and a registered sex offender working two blocks away in another direction. It would be safer for me to drive her!
So what is this strange thing you call walking? I am not quite sure to what you are referring? Is there a class on that I can take? Your post was really confusing.
My son rides the bus. He loves it, for the most part. Though sometimes he’ll be all, “Well, Charlie wouldn’t sit with me so I called him a fathead,” and then I have to explain that we don’t call people names.
I used to ride the bus to school too, hated it because I have motion sickness and it was so bumpy that I was nauseated everyday.
The ride was short enough to make it home without vomiting, but long enough to be nauseatingly miserable….ugh, memories!
Oh… and I just added you into my blog roll 🙂
We go to a charter school, which I LOVE!!!
And my kids walk home every day… Caleb usually beats his sisters home by like five minutes. He runs super fast because he has to pee so bad… LOL
And I was just thinking the other day about paste… whatever happened to that stuff? Haven’t seen it in years!
My kids have to bring their own teachers to school. hehe
I used to have to walk a mile to school carrying either my snare drum or my bells for band. Man were they heavy!
If I was lucky, my mom would drop me off half way.
I am not quite as old as you, I’m afraid Nanny Goat, but I too walked to and from school everyday. In the heat — the HEAT! We’re talking Arizona heat, man. Oven temperature heat.
And about that t-paper for those spoiled rotten school kids? Really, who needs it? I never used t-paper when I was a kid. Course, I didn’t have many friends, but really, I was way ahead of my time, saving trees. Those spoiled rotten kids can just use their hands and wash ’em off afterwards. They can be green AND brown, right?
So no more crying about the T.P. ‘k?
That toilet paper could be multi-functional!
Not only would it be a pee quicker-picker-upper, it would also double as notepaper to pin on kid’s backpacks, art suppy paper, and note-writing during nap time so kids don’t have to get poked in the chest.
Use your brain, people!
Up with the toilet paper!!!
Ahh eating paste. those were the times. So your teacher poked you in the chest? That’s sexual harrassment as long as you didn’t get pregnant by that Mr. Stanley it was all good in those times.
Let me know when you open up a school. I’d like to be a teacher for you. Just don’t do a background check. Thanks.
I still remember when the ultimate treat in elementary school was “getting to” give the teacher a footrub or backrub.
God, I hope *that* delightful tradition hasn’t fallen by the wayside…
…A.
Besides, we had all that “new math” to learn. And spelling, both Aaron and Tori.
Hey, I walked to school, smoked each way, and had to ride a bus when I was in grade school. It makes for great material when you’re writing later in life.
Stumbled.
No T.P.????
That’s really being up Shit Creek.
(Sorry)
Since my grandkids clog the toilet every other day with the stuff I know they use too much, but Come On!!
I guess I should just say:
I agree!
Amen Sister!
Right on!
You get the idea.
Wiping after you pee? Huh, I just give a good shake. Sorry ladies.
I live in a rural area and we’ve still got all that stuff… walking, bussing, PE and toilet paper. The lunch ladies hand out free hot chocolate on days below zero and free birthday cake to every kid once a month. I heart our school.
at least the t.p. isn’t printed–as it is in Great Britain–Property of Her Majesty The Queen. Try wiping your whatzit with that!
When else are girls supposed to put on their (forbidden) makeup, if not on the school bus?
This is sad, but many schools have been scrimping for a long time. Money is incredibly tight and it’s not like teachers and staff are overpaid. Unless kids donate certain items like kleenex and dry erase markers and hand sanitizer, I know many teachers end up spending out-of-pocket. Seems like toilet paper is kind of pushing it though… think they could work that one out.
Dude, I SOOO don’t wanna rain on your parade, but….
The reason y’all were never left behind is because you spoke English. And so did your teachers. And if there was a kid in your class that had a lower IQ, then I bet he/she WAS left behind.
Just sayin. I have really researched the NCLB legislation. Don’t know if it’s smart or if it’s crap, but at least I feel smurter now that I know what it’s about.
And, you’re lucky. On the bus I got gum stuck in my hair. At the root. And my mom told me I got what I deserved because I called a bully-girl an effin beyotch. OUCH that stings, mom. And, no I never got it out – I had to cut my hair. Made me look like Pee Wee Herman.
Oh the memories you have brought back for me! PE and those god awful uniforms we had to wear, school buses – I think our driver had to pull over on a daily basis to settle everybody down – (course back then that was just being loud, changing seats, and maybe throwing wads of paper around the bus). And walking home from school. I didn’t do it every day but I loved it! Crazy huh? Sometimes the “cute boy” would walk with me. Sometimes I took the bus in the morning but after school I used to cut through the Air Force base and catch the base shuttles to bring me around to the other side of the base nearer to my house. Saved a few miles, but still it was a hike even from there to my house. We would stop halfway at Lum’s for a coke to cool off and maybe a hot dog if we were lucky enuf to have the money, and stay to listen to the juke box before heading home. Oh and art class – I so loved art class though I seriously think my teacher was a tad bit crazy quite literally.
As far as that toilet paper thing that just ticks me off to no end, so I won’t even get started there – all this wasted money on these stupid things and our schools are suffering in more ways than toilet paper. It’s the fault of greed, lobby interests of big corporations and our legislators for not “doing the right thing.”
We solved that problem…we homeschool! Reese is free to poop (and wipe!) whenever needed, he can walk to school (’cause it’s about 10 steps from the living room to the kitchen!), and can even do things like ride a bike, swim in the pool, hike through the woods, & climb a mountain for PE!
Now, Hubby & I don’t want him to miss out on some school experiences, so we trip him in the hallways, shove him in the pantry (since we don’t have lockers), blow spitballs into his hair while he’s working, and call him a “dork” or a “spaz” whenever we think of it.
KIDDING!
Amen!
I had the same life as you growing up but look how I turned out!
I remember the first time my mom allowed my brother and I to ride our bikes to school. I was in sixth grade and he was in first. It was glorious. I’m sure she followed behind in the car, trailing at a safe distance. But, we felt so grown up, so free.
I grew up in a cow town (literally, there were cows across the street) and you either went to the public school (that really sucked) or the catholic one. My dad’s job perks paid for me going to the catholic school. If you wanted to ride the bus you had to pay for it, so my parents had me walk. up hill, in the snow, both ways! of course the boy who had a crush on me often had his mom stop and offer me rides home, where he’d get the chanc to pull my pigtails and ask me if I was wearing shorts under my plain skirt. That was elementary school. When I was in highschool, both the public and catholic schools were in danger of being closed due to lack of funds.
When I moved here (the chicago area) I felt like we’d moved to stepford! If your child doesn’t live across a major street you don’t get bus privleges, and they aren’t allowed to walk themselves until they are in the 5th grade. Oh how I long to move somewhere great like Florida where they need their own toiletpaper. ;p
ah! dont get me started! there is a school here in long beach – which shall remain nameless – Lowell oops! i totally didnt mean to type that… any way, the children are not allowed to run. on the play ground. in an elementary school! i guess someone is afraid that a skinned knee would warrant a lawsuit. so sad.
and thank you margaret, from the bottom of my heart for supporting me as i raise money and walk for Multiple Sclerosis. i feel so loved.
This wsa great . . . school is sooooo different from when we went! I would make my kids do all of those things if I didn’t think he would disappear and show up on the side of a milk carton in the 10 blocks between our house and the school in a relatively safe neighborhood in a small town.
Amen to you here. A few days ago there was a terrible mix up with me supposed to pick my kid up and him walking home a different than mommy expected way … locked door at home … pee-pee dance. “Leave the door UNlocked, mom!”
It’s the 24 hour news channels that makes mommies so afraid for their babies – things really aren’t so much worse now. I refuse to buy into the fear. And my kid’s in Karate just in case I’m wrong.
And remember when we went through that thing called a lunch line and you didn’t get a choice? You had to take your fruit and your vegetable? Now they have pizza, chicken nuggets and soda. I don’t think the cafeterias even serve fruits and veggies anymore.
And yet we keep building brand new schools our property taxes shoot thru the roof, and teachers keep making more and more money?! They’re all driving around in brand new SUV’s here in Georgia while I’m still in my 5 year old truck. Teachers are just overpaid Government sponsored baby sitters. Maybe the teachers should be buying the toilet paper?
yeah. you tell ’em! that’s right!
smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxooxxoxo
Hahaha I couldn’t agree more! While I don’t have any children of my own, my whole neighborhood is filled with them. I laugh at all my neighbors DRIVING their precious bundles of joy to the bus stop. Um, the bus stop is not only safe, but it’s 25 yards (LITERALLY!) from the front door and it can be seen from almost any house on the block. I’m fairly sure we are raising a generation of little wimps lol!
Boy, I remember busses. It’s weird because kids wouldn’t want to be caught dead on them now. I know because traffic is 10 times worse going to work because all of the sucker parents are taking their kids to school instead of making them walk the 6 blocks to the school up the street.
My dad was old school and MADE me take the bus (even though I was 7 miles away) and it was nearly an hour trip in the am & pm. Even when I got my license I had to ride the bus because the TAXES paid for it…now I’m not so sure, and it’s a shame!
This is pathetic – where the hell is the great Obama??
Oh, man… I want to steal your posts everytime I read you…
I so feel you on this one!
I couldn’t agree more. BTW, Your posts goes up on my site tomorrow (12:01) technically. Thanks again!!!
What is this thing you call, ‘toilet paper?’
I had a neighbor who used to follow the school bus to make sure her kids got to school safely and on time. sheesh.
I drove my daughter to school for 4 year during high school… she was afraid Katie was going to beat her up onthe bus. (Katie was NOT a nice person and she ruled her parents)
My kids went to Catholic school and we had to send in toilet paper and boxes of tissues! AND I had to pay tuition!
i loved this post! perfect. and of course full of memories!
It’s gotten so bad as to come down to toilet paper? It’s so freakily different these days.
I was shocked when we moved to HI and I found out that the kids have to pay to ride the school buses out here. It’s only like ten cents or a quarter each way, but still.
People driving their kids to the bus stop? I would be homicidal! I’m sure it probably happens out here too, but at least I don’t see it everyday.
Our neighborhood parents don’t drive the kids to school. Oh no. They drive them to the corner bus stops.
Seriously. Traffic jams at Every. Single. Corner. Every. Single. Afternoon.
To drive the precious babies a distance of (maybe) 100 yards.
When my kid was in school, it was actually a big hairy deal to be “allowed” to walk or ride his bike all the way to school by himself. Now, apparently, it’s neglectful to make them walk all the way home from the bus stop.
*sigh* God I’m old.
I miss nap time. I think that should be included in everyone’s day.
It really it a bit alarming the way public schools are headed.
You are so right.
We live in a good sized city and it amazes me the difference between what the city schools have (where I used to teach) and what the wealthy suburbs have (where my husband teaches). The contrast would make you sick. One school district has no buses while the other one has buses that stop at every single house (what happened to a common bus stop for the neighborhood??)
Too funny… and too true!
Haha – I do that to the kids – I pin notes on them all the time because the backpacks are just cute bags that they get to carry around and show off to their friends, they never actually look inside of them!