How to create a better office environment with furniture, supplies, and products

Statistics show that teachers across America are spending a small mountain of cash out of pocket each year simply to provide their classrooms with needed supplies. The estimated amount. $4 billion a year which works out to the ghastly realization that the teachers who are self-funding classrooms spend $1,200 of their own pay each year.

I don’t know about you but if upon hiring my manager said, “Hey, welcome aboard. Oh and by the way, you’ll be buying yours and everyone else’s office supplies this year which should be about $1,200” I’d go running in the other direction. It’s insane that teachers on a teacher’s salary are expected to shell out cash for school goods for students.    

That amount of $1,200 yearly figured into a life-long career teaching is enough to buy a small but decent house. It’s shameful. It was announced today that Office Max is launching a campaign to help. The campaign is a nationwide program that will be managed through in-store donations to benefit Adopt-A-Classroom. Adopt-A-Classroom is a non-profit that gives supplies directly to teachers.

This could turn into a really long rant about the state of the country and the school systems and how so much emphasis is on the monster that is No Child Left Behind vs. the simplicity of offering needed tools to teachers. I could point out that over 50% of teachers leave the system before five years have passed – likely based on this and other lack of support systems. In addition we could work out some figures about how many lives teachers touch over their life… 2,000, 3,000, way more – and they touch student lives whether or not they’re stressed out and poor or well cared for and receive resources. Which sort of teacher do you want for your kids?

My son doesn’t even go to school; we homeschool and this right here is one reason. But I still support the schools in our community because these are my son’s peers. If you have kids or don’t have kids or if like me you homeschool it’s still important to help out. I hear people say, “I don’t have kids…why should I pay taxes and help the school and blah blah blah.” Guess what. If you think this it’s off kilter thinking. Who exactly lives in your neighborhood? Who will become the nurses, and tax attorneys, and community leaders of the future. The educational system is terribly screwed up and it really is everyone’s business.

Visit Adopt-A-School or Office Max for details on how you can help. Better yet, simply walk over to the closest school near you and ask what they need help with.