It’s the week before school begins. In less than 168 hours (which will be gone in what feels like 12 minutes) a large group of children will be in your classroom with varying degrees of motivation and multiple years of school experience informing their current demeanor. You gaze upon your empty learning space, thinking of ways to fill the void. Motivational posters, word walls, anchor charts, a handy rolling cabinet to keep art supplies accessible and organized. The possibilities are endless. You jot down your list of ideas, then head to Learning Trails, Target, or Office Depot to spend, spend, spend. Pretty soon your credit card has $500 more debt on it, but you have everything on your list and can’t wait to make the room look perfect.
If you have taught for more than a few years, you can probably relate to this scenario. I know I do. This was my behavior for many, many years. If my classroom didn’t have something I thought it absolutely needed, I would go out and buy it. Seems simple enough. It’s all tax deductible if I buy it for my classroom, right? Yes, up to $300. I’ll get reimbursed from the school, won’t I? Maybe. One year I spent over $2,000 on my room and my students. Nobody taught me this mindset, as far as I can recall. For some reason I just felt like I was expected to spend my own money.
I know that I am not alone in this feeling. According to a report from Scott Winstead at My eLearning World, about 94 percent of teachers say they have spent their own money on their classroom at an average of about $820.
While this most likely represents less than 2% of their average salary, $820 is a lot of money to many, many educators in this country. Personally, that pays for a full year of electricity bills, or two months of groceries, or almost two full seasons of ice hockey league fees, or 6 different Spartan races that I could enjoy. That rolling cabinet is nice, but I’d rather be playing ice hockey.
So, what are teachers spending their money on? In my early years I would spend about $100 per month at Costco for snacks I gave students who came after school for additional help. Sometimes it was last-minute supplies I needed for lesson ideas I thought up the day before. Excitement would get the best of me and I would rush out to Target to purchase everything I needed because I was not able to plan far enough in advance. This has declined in recent years because I usually try to manifest my idea digitally using Google Apps, which are free. For other educators, the spending varies from cleaning supplies (I bet this skyrocketed in 2020), to incentive prizes for students (or as I call it, learning by bribery), to classroom decorations (this has never been an issue for me).
After almost two decades I finally came to the realization that none of this out-of-pocket spending should be happening. I have a few reasons for this mindset shift, some of which are pragmatic, and a few that are more conceptual.
1. I Probably Don’t Need It
Over the years I’ve purchased so many things for my classroom that I thought would inspire my students or magically unlock their learning. Low-tech, high-tech, no-tech, most of them never made much of a dent. A well-chosen thinking task paired with effective student communication strategies wins 100% of the time. Technology is great, but I haven’t found anything that beats a good class debate in a room where every student feels safe to share their thinking.
2. Classroom Culture Isn’t Found In a Store.
Hear me out. Classroom decorations are nice and pretty, but they don’t actually create the warm environment you are hoping for. You do. Your words, actions, teaching strategies, and classroom management create the safe learning environment you are looking for, not the kitten poster on the wall. You can put a million colorful borders, posters, and inspirational quotes around the room, but it’s all fake if your actions don’t match what’s plastered around the room. Instead of agonizing over what your room looks like, take that time to reflect on your teaching at the end of each day and examine whether your words and actions matched what you value.
3. My School Does Have Money.
The school you work at most likely has more money in the budget than you think it does. At my school each teacher has a few hundred dollars to spend on classroom supplies that is gifted by the PTSA (thank you!). We also have an amazing front office staff that can order just about any office supply from the district warehouse or approved vendors and it can be there in sometimes a day or two. This requires decent planning skills, which I have improved at over the years. I bet if you find the right person at your site to ask, and can plan far enough ahead, you can find money in the budget for what you need.
4. We Shouldn’t Have To.
It is not your job to cash flow the supplies in your classroom. The school district receives funding through taxes and it is their job to supply you with the basic things you and your students need. If a school cannot supply its teachers and students with even the basic supplies they need for learning, there is a larger community issue at play. You spending hundreds or thousands of your own dollars to bridge the gap does not fix the structural problem, it only hides it. If you notice many of your students are hungry during the day, perhaps the schools need to consider more school-funded nutrition breaks rather than you buying food for them.
5. I’m Perpetuating Stereotypes.
When you consistently purchase your own supplies, you further perpetuate the common societal belief that educators should be selfless heroes who constantly make sacrifices for their students because they love the profession and their students. That is an unrealistic, toxic stereotype that does more harm than good. Yes, there are teachers who practice extreme acts of kindness, empathy, and altruism on a regular basis because that’s just who they are and how they are wired. That is not the average person, and an entire profession should not be held to that standard. I don’t expect all baseball players to be Shohei Ohtani. That would be very unfair to the Trey Mancini’s of the world who are having a nice solid career, but not going to the Hall of Fame. It’s ok to be an above-average educator who is passionate about their job, but also has money to spend on their family and personal life.
So as you head into this school year, I implore you to think about why you might be spending your own money on your classroom. Are you not asking the right person? Do you need to work on medium and long term planning? Are you buying brand name items instead of using school provided supplies that work just as well? Are you hoping that your colorful walls will do the classroom management for you? Are you buying things you want rather than focusing on what the students truly need?
I’m guilty of all of these thoughts. When I have them I now I try to remind myself that no matter how much money I might spend on my classroom, it’s my words and actions that have the biggest impact on my students. Acts of kindness and empathy are free.
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