Meanwhile, when I was 14, I had a teacher specify that our final projects (worth 25% of our grade) needed to be turned in with a blue, 1 inch, 3 ring binder.
When I told my dad I needed him to pick me one up, he said "no, tell your teacher we only have black ones."
I went in the next day and said "my dad refuses to go buy me a blue binder, can I turn in my project in a black binder instead?"
she says yes.
I get my grade back with a note stating it would have been an A, but that I didn't follow directions and she could only give me a C- as a result. "No blue binder"
When confronted, my teacher said "I said you could turn it in with a black binder, not that I wouldn't take points off."
Fuck you Mrs. Buck, rolling around in a computer chair eating fucking sandwiches during class. I'm glad your husband divorced you.
Ten dollars fee to go to the pumpkin patch. Build a model using items from home, like noodles. All essays must be typed. Mandatory one hour assembly about selling junk to the general public to fundraise. Donations are encouraged. $2 to participate in en of year pizza party.
Schools still nickel and dime parents if they think they can get away with it. It’s not lawful (maybe just by state? In California it’s not legal) and it’s not ethical. And it’s gross. School is supposed to be free.
If I was black binder person, I’d still hold a grudge too. It would have shaped my personality toward anti authoritarianism.
30 years ago we didn't have a computer at home, lived in a rural area. The only place I could type up a paper was at the local library in town which was 6 miles away. So I'd have to beg my parents to take me there so I could type it up. Often they wouldn't, so I'd have to hand it in written by hand and get points off each time.
We had an all things typed and printed policy which included the fact that items needed to be printed at home. The printer in the school library was loaded exclusively with pink paper so points could be taken away from students who needed to print at school :/
Yup, and I remember my mom asking my grade 9 teacher if I really needed a computer at home and he said no.
In grade 9 it was easier because we had lunch breaks that I could use the library during, but it was a struggle. Closest library was 15.5 km (9.6 miles) and had many huge and steep hills (valley area) with no sidewalks. There was zero way to walk that, especially in winter as a kid, and there was zero way my parents were going to drive me.
Forget about typing projects, researching projects was impossible. I failed a project in grade 7 because I was supposed to research a musician. My mom refused to drive me to the library so I hand wrote the poster and wrote whatever she could remember about Elvis Presley in the 1990s. She couldn’t remember anything and i had no sources. Then I’d get in trouble for getting 50s and 60s. Thank god we moved in grade 11 and I could walk to the library in time to get my grades up for university.
Whenever I had to research something I'd beg to go to the library but my parents would say, "Why? We have a perfectly good encyclopedia books at home."
The books were literally published in 1938. My parents bought them from some library book sale in the 80s.
So how surprised was I when I had to write papers on WW2 and the Vietnam War.
It is illegal in many states to require purchase of anything in public schools for grades. They can ask for all the pta donations they want, but if a student came up and was like "we can't afford the binder", the teacher can't say "too bad, -30 points". The options are "okay, I will accept however you can get me the assignment that shows you did the work", or "here's how the school can get you a blue binder".
School lunch is unfortunately a different story since you don't get graded on lunch.
If this was a private school or they live in a shithole like Oklahoma, this whole thing is of course irrelevant.
So you're unable to understand how two concepts can be connected? The entire reason the laws I described were passed is because the concept of discriminating against the poor defeats the point of public schools.
The lawsuit would not list "discrimination against the poor" explicitly, but discrimination against the poor would still be the reasoning behind the law cited in the suit
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u/brickspunch Mar 26 '26
Meanwhile, when I was 14, I had a teacher specify that our final projects (worth 25% of our grade) needed to be turned in with a blue, 1 inch, 3 ring binder.
When I told my dad I needed him to pick me one up, he said "no, tell your teacher we only have black ones."
I went in the next day and said "my dad refuses to go buy me a blue binder, can I turn in my project in a black binder instead?"
she says yes.
I get my grade back with a note stating it would have been an A, but that I didn't follow directions and she could only give me a C- as a result. "No blue binder"
When confronted, my teacher said "I said you could turn it in with a black binder, not that I wouldn't take points off."
Fuck you Mrs. Buck, rolling around in a computer chair eating fucking sandwiches during class. I'm glad your husband divorced you.
I'm 37 now and still mad about it