Honestly, I was that kid in school. I tried to tell teachers but they still expected me to have all the things I needed, knowing I had no way. I really think they thought I was lying.

Sounds like the life of being impoverished. While teachers get mad at that, objective thinking is lost. Bless the kid who wrote this.

What’s difficult is that this child will grow up to be judged and criticized by her enabled, entitled peers. “Work harder” they’ll say. “Be accountable and responsible”, they say. “You did this to yourself. If you didn’t want to be uneducated and jobless, you should have worked harder. I had to.” 😡

I wish some of the teachers we had growing up had understood this. We had a demerit system for forgetting things like pencils and homework. While i completely understand trying to teach kids responsibility, certain kids had an advantage. They obviously had parents who could make sure their pencils were packed and homework was done. If they forgot something, one parent could bring it to the school so they wouldn’t get what was called a “violation”. Meanwhile other kids had parents working multiple jobs so no one could be there to help them manage things like that. No one could run to the school to bring them a pencil because their parents were working all day. And even factors like eating healthy, regular meals help with memory.

This is why I buy about 500 pencils every summer. It makes me so mad when we give kids a hard time about a damn pencil. You don’t know what so many of them have been through just to get to school at all. My babies are mostly 8 years old. They set their own alarms, dress themselves, walk themselves to school (where they eat breakfast), and yes, many of them are responsible for younger siblings. As a teacher, you know whether a kid doesn’t have a pencil because they are being irresponsible or because they are burdened with a level of responsibility far beyond their years. It’s easy to tell. Give them a pencil. Every time. And smile while you’re doing it. Somehow, despite everything, that kid still cares enough to ask for a pencil.

While I think he has an impoverished life, I don’t think the teacher was aware anyhow of it..I think the teacher just saw them as any other student..unprepared for class:/.

this is why I send my kid with double the supplies he needs. It's sad to know that there are children out there who don't have the proper tools they need to make it thru a school day.

unfortunately this is the reality for many kids. My boyfriend and I have discussed and decided to send our daughter (and any future kids) to school with multiples of things such as pencils, pens, erasers, those thin folders, sharpeners, etc to keep in her backpack. we'll have a conversation with her about how some kids are not able to bring these to school, so if she sees another kid looking for one, she is to offer a spare to her peer. we will also send her lunches with a little extra in it, incase a peer isn't able to eat lunch that day. we as parents would rather her toss her left over lunch if no one else needs it, than to ever see a poverty stricken family go hungry.

There are so many teachers like this, especially where I live. They can be so misunderstanding and rude to students, whether they admit or not, it’s true. A child not having a pencil shouldn’t be yelled at, just give them a damn pencil. At my school we would get punished for not having a material, sometimes teachers treat students like shit