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TechnographSharpen your ... laptops? The new school supplies
By The Associated Press
Posted: 7/18/08 Section: Diversions
Hand sanitizer. USB flash drive. Magenta Sharpie. Clean socks. Quick - what do they have in common?
Answer: They're probably going to be in your kid's pencil case when fall comes around.
Long home to an unchanging bunch of yellow No. 2 pencils and thick pink erasers, the pencil case has gotten a makeover. Thanks to the onslaught of kid-focused marketing and the growing presence of technology in children's lives, those perennial favorites have become so last semester.
School-supply basics face competition from a growing array of products tricked out in bright colors and camo prints or plastered with the likeness of everyone from Spider-Man to those ubiquitous kids from "High School Musical."
The function of these supplies hasn't changed. Kids need to write and have things to write upon. They need to transport work to and from home. And they need tools for creative projects. But where the pencil case itself was once the canvas for self-expression and coolness, today the tools inside play that same fetish-object role.
"It's fair to say there will always be room for a No. 2 pencil," says Target spokesman Joshua Thomas. "But what's happening is that these classic back-to-school supplies are evolving."
In addition, the list of supplies considered vital has grown, says Barb Kapinus, senior policy analyst for the National Education Association. Items that didn't exist when most of today's parents were climbing aboard school buses - tiny, portable hard drives and scented hand sanitizer - now make the list in many places.
Whether teachers send home exhaustive wish lists or ask only for simple supplies, shopping lists have grown in school districts around the country, says Jennifer Olson, assistant professor of education at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., and mother of two school-agers. Retailers add further fuel by offering their own exhaustive back-to-school shopping lists, broken down by age group from preschool through college.
Answer: They're probably going to be in your kid's pencil case when fall comes around.
Long home to an unchanging bunch of yellow No. 2 pencils and thick pink erasers, the pencil case has gotten a makeover. Thanks to the onslaught of kid-focused marketing and the growing presence of technology in children's lives, those perennial favorites have become so last semester.
School-supply basics face competition from a growing array of products tricked out in bright colors and camo prints or plastered with the likeness of everyone from Spider-Man to those ubiquitous kids from "High School Musical."
The function of these supplies hasn't changed. Kids need to write and have things to write upon. They need to transport work to and from home. And they need tools for creative projects. But where the pencil case itself was once the canvas for self-expression and coolness, today the tools inside play that same fetish-object role.
"It's fair to say there will always be room for a No. 2 pencil," says Target spokesman Joshua Thomas. "But what's happening is that these classic back-to-school supplies are evolving."
In addition, the list of supplies considered vital has grown, says Barb Kapinus, senior policy analyst for the National Education Association. Items that didn't exist when most of today's parents were climbing aboard school buses - tiny, portable hard drives and scented hand sanitizer - now make the list in many places.
Whether teachers send home exhaustive wish lists or ask only for simple supplies, shopping lists have grown in school districts around the country, says Jennifer Olson, assistant professor of education at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., and mother of two school-agers. Retailers add further fuel by offering their own exhaustive back-to-school shopping lists, broken down by age group from preschool through college.
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Whitney
posted 7/20/08 @ 11:24 PM CST
When my sister came home from buying her 5 year old daughter school supplies,I was shocked to find out that they had completely taken away all creativity in the list. (Continued…)
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