School Supplies

Recently, I pulled out my child's school supply list for this coming school year, seeing how the summer's end is suddenly upon us. Am I completely off base, or is it a bit excessive:

1 pencil box
1 box of 24 Crayola crayons
1 Fiskars 5" child size scissors
1 package of twistable crayola colored pencils
1 large pink eraser
2 highlighters
5 heavy duty plastic-coated pocket folders
4 Five Star poly wire bound notebooks
1 3-ring binder
36 #2 pencils
1 10-pack Crayola washable markers
1 pack dry erase markers
24 glue sticks
1 liquid Elmer's glue bottle
1 box Kleenex tissues
1 box anti-bacterial wet wipes
1 pack post-it notes
1 box quart-size zip lock bags (last names A-F)
1 hand sanitizer (last names G-M)
1 box gallon zip lock bags (last names N-Z)

What, may I ask, is a class of 30 (a topic of discussion for a future blog) going to do with 1080 pencils and 720 glue sticks over the course of 180 days?

Eat them?

What kind of message does this send to our students? "Don't worry about not capping your glue, there's 719 more where that came from!"

How am I supposed to teach my children above using disposable items judiciously? About taking care of what they have? (And about how lucky they are to have what they have?)

A look at the school's lost and found will drive home the point that we live in the land of plenty, but should we promote this excess?

What would you do?