Back-to-school requires more than new supplies
Back-to-school requires more than new supplies

For nerds like me, shopping for school supplies was like Christmas, but you got to pick your own presents.

You chose your own colors — red pencils instead of yellow, black binders instead of white, the girliest Lisa Frank folders you could find, preferably ones with neon unicorns. I preferred college-ruled paper so I could write in the smallest letters possible.

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Sometimes I could talk my mom into getting me a zip-up binder with built-in pencil holders. I never did convince her how much cooler glue sticks were than boring, cheap, regular glue.

Loading up a backpack with the fun stuff was exciting, just as exciting as the first day of school. There was so much hope for the year. It's like opening day for the Chicago Cubs — nothing bad had happened yet. But the excitement of opening day is always followed by a reality check: studying, tests, homework.

Just because your science homework is in a cute folder doesn't make it easier.

So if I were a teacher, I think I'd adjust my classroom shopping list a bit. I wouldn't want to ruin that end-of-summer feeling, but I would want my students to anticipate what was coming, just like Cubs fans.

For example, I took a look at the list for Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School, an Oklahoma City Public School. Sixth-graders will give their homeroom teachers markers, highlighters, glue sticks, index cards, tissues, pencils, hand sanitizer and colored pencils. The students will keep their own stock of supplies, too: binders, folders, dividers, a protractor, a compass, highlighters, erasers and pencils.

This is certainly not all you need for sixth grade. Sixth grade was terrifyingly awkward for me and everyone else in the world except for the three or four cool kids, who usually wound up in juvenile hall by age 12. So if I were making a supply list for sixth-graders, this is what I'd tell them to bring:

•Paper: Just enough that you can hide it if you need to "borrow” a piece from the cute boy next to you when you "run out.”

•Pencils: Hundreds of real wood ones to play pencil-break on the bus. The pencil-break game determines your hierarchy on the bus, and your parents simply won't understand.

•Confidence: Even though you can't buy this, you'll need it to survive middle school. No matter how gawky or uncomfortable you feel, don't worry. Everyone is awkward. At least you have a backpack full of new stuff.

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