The News Journal ran the obligatory annual story about how much money teachers “have to” spend out of pocket each year.  It started in an odd way:

 

No one told teacher Barbara Finnan she had to buy $50 worth of chewing gum for her pupils at Baltz Elementary School. She even has a policy of no gum chewing in class, and the school also does not permit it.But she read somewhere that chewing gum helps children think. And so, for a week’s worth of testing, she bent the rules a little and bought the gum with money out of her own pocket. To her delight, the scores did go up a little, although she’ll probably never know if the gum did it.Gum is an unusual example of a “school supply,” but it illustrates how some teachers will spare no expense — especially at their own expense — on trying to help their students.

And now my obligatory smarmy comments: 

I “read somewhere” that methamphetamine helps children study.  I hope Ms. Finnan doesn’t read the same thing next year!  Gum is not a “school supply”, it’s a fanciful experiment that a teacher wanted to conduct; hardly a good example of teachers who really do need to supplement the classroom with books and supplies.  

I also wonder what other school rules she helps her students violate?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Children, Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.