Let's recap on how needs differ from wants. Needs are basic things we need to survive, like a good education. Wants are something we'd like to have but are mainly unnecessary, like skateboards with cool designs that people ride to school.
School supplies, for instance, are needs. We'd fail if we didn't use pencils and paper to write written history tests. Neither do we forget to use compasses for geometry assignments. But when was the last time they became wants - enhanced versions of needs that make school life fun and exciting but aren't needed in the first place?
Take the 90's, for instance. Colorful school supply lines by Lisa Frank were the craze. Girls would write on pink paper to make assignments more interesting. In the early 2000's gel pens were popular. Writing with colored ink besides the conventional dark blue and black made homework interesting.
What the crazes of the past had in common were schools playing God on students and banning them from classes.
Don't just blame illegible writing (from gel pens) or visual classroom distractions. Kids in low-income families or sturdy-income ones who are very frugal and very focused on needs (college tuition, utility and gasoline bills, groceries, and insurance) are enticed by what their richer peers have. They badger peers with them (some having huge troves) to borrow them or even worse.
We all know we can't have everything we want, so what should schools do about them? They hand out school supply lists to parents or display them in stores when parents buy the supplies. Most of them enforce uniform dress codes or similar to them (Collared shirts in any solid color with khaki, navy, or black solid-colored bottoms hemmed to the knees come to mind.) They ensure uniformity and reduce jealousy.
But having to set standards is really not enough. I believe that schools should not be afraid to create trends that are free and inclusive to everyone, regardless of social status. While it isn't fair for a kid who is living in a motel thanks to foreclosure to feel bad about every one of her peers having really cool markers, it is fair a classroom to incorporate singing in the curriculum.
As for parents with rein on spending, keep up the good work telling kids that while their peers have cool stuff to bring/wear to school they have to stick with basics. I wish all parents were like you.
What do you think?
by Kathryn L Hill 10 years ago
Its way too fat. The Constitution gives these responsibilities to the Executive Branch:1. Oversee interstate commerce.2. Execute laws passed by Congress.3. Protect us from outside influence and military attack. 4. The president is to act as our Commander in Chief. However, many Federal programs...
by tlm70 13 years ago
If there is one thing that could change socioty as a whole it would be teaching our youths what impact poor decision making can have , not your ususal D.A.R.E or anything like that, those are great programs , but maybe on doing or staging senarios where they interact or act out...
by Stacy Harris 13 years ago
Do you think public schools should mandate parent volunteering?I recently came across an article from a bitter stay at home mom who resented others who were unable to volunteer like she was? As a parent, working or not, do you think it is fair to mandate volunteer work at a school? They were...
by PermissionGiver 14 years ago
I personally feel that to require children to go to school against their wishes or the wishes of their parents, under penalty of going to jail or losing their children, is involuntary servitude, which is prohibited by the constitution. As it stands, even parents who chose to home school are...
by arizonataylor 12 years ago
Do you feel that homeschooled children generally miss out on socialization?
by kingjames4ever 13 years ago
What are the pros and cons of having school uniforms for students on American public schools?Other countries have their public school students be required to wear school uniforms while America's public school students remain the freedom of how they want to dress. Comparing students from wearing...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |