Teacher Makes Students Give Her Their Shoe if they Want to Borrow a Pencil From Her to Ensure She Gets Her Pencils Back

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Jul 6, 2026 12:30 PM EDT

That's one way to stink up the classroom! 

I don't think it should be a teacher's job to have an endless supply of pencils for their students. A lot of parents think that because public schools are run by the state, the state should be providing their kids with school supplies, but that's simply not how it works. School administrators do not give individual teachers enough money to buy enough school supplies for their entire class, so they send home lists of items parents need to buy for their students. That sometimes includes boxes of Kleenex, hand sanitizer, and art supplies for the whole class. That makes some parents angry, because they don't think that they should have to buy something that's not solely for their kids. They write their kid's first and last name on the box of colored pencils in big letters so only their kid can use them.

In a perfect world, neither the teachers nor the parents would have to buy school supplies for children who aren't their own, but we don't live in a perfect world. A lot of kids who come from families that could easily buy them a new box of pencils every month regularly go to their teachers and demand a pencil because they lost all of theirs. This high demand can be a difficult conundrum for teachers, so some teachers took to the internet to share how they handle the kids who seemingly need a new pencil every day. 

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  • An Elementary school teacher instructs her students in math on the blackboard before they do their classwork with pencils and paper.
    via u/Emergency-Pepper3537

    An Elementary school teacher instructs her students in math on the blackboard before they do their classwork with pencils and paper.

    Scenario represented by models. 

  • What's your dealbreaker as a teacher. For me, it's that students need to give me back the pencils that they have borrowed.

    My second year of teaching I got so g d in tired of my pencils not getting returned, or worse yet, broken. So now if a
    via u/Emergency-Pepper3537
  • student needs a pencil? I need a shoe in return. If they break it, then they get their shoe back, but they can no longer borrow a pencil from me.
    via u/Emergency-Pepper3537
  • karenna89 I lost my mind when I would pass the recycle bin by my door and there would be new pencils dropped in on the way out. We are enabling irresponsible behavior by providing students with a brand new pencil every hour. I've read the "Cause I ain't got a pencil" poem and that's not what I'm dealing with. My students that ask for a pencil every single hour aren't asking because they don't have pencils, they just don't care enough to bring one from one class to the next. I'm done this year. I
    via u/karenna89
  • flameosirflameo I got a box of golf pencils. Multiple times I have had students ask me for a pencil, but once I offer them a short pencil with no eraser, they would say nevermind, they have one. They just did not want to get it out of their bag.
    via u/flameosirflameo
  • A stubby “golf pencil," which is easy to use when writing down scores on the golf course, but difficult to write with for longer stretches of time.
    via Kelly Sikkema

    A stubby "golf pencil," which is easy to use when writing down scores on the golf course, but difficult to write with for longer stretches of time. 

    Photograph is a representation of the object described. 

  • Witwer52 See, and mine will just say "never mind" and proceed to sit there and not do any work for the entire class. When they don't give a rat's ass about grades, they do it to "punish" me because I'm the only one who cares if they do work. It's really sad.
    via u/Witwer52
  • TomQuichotte The USA is bizarre. At least where I am in Europe, if a student shows up with no class supplies they need to ask a peer. And then on the online classbook/attendance system they get flagged for not having school supplies. After 3 times getting an entry across different classes they get detention...
    via u/TomQuichotte
  • A student sits alone in detention after failing to bring a pencil to class three times.
    via Giulia Squillace (Unsplash+)

    A student sits alone in detention after failing to bring a pencil to class three times. 

    The picture depicts a model. 

  • TheRedMaiden Here's how that works in the US: Kid doesn't bring a pencil --> refuses/can't get one from a peer --> kid decides they don't have to do work --> receives a zero on the assignment --> complains the teacher is "targeting them" --> admin questions teacher --> "Well why didn't you just give him/her a pencil?" --> teacher gets reprimanded/written up Then admin is shocked about student apathy and low grades, then blames, guess who? Teachers!
    via u/TheRedMaiden
  • Opportunity-Horror The teacher next to me has a "pencil graveyard"- she picks up any broken pencil that she finds on the ground- or really just any pencil- and outs it in a jar on her desk. Those are the pencils she gives out.
    via u/Opportunity-Horror
  • Educational_Infidel I fought a similar campaign for many years... most battles were won but I lost the war when my admin felt my policy was akin to an oppressive regime. The last few years I provide pencils until I run out of them. I start with around 300 pencils which is what our district gives to us during preplanning. When those are gone, that's it! This past year I ran out in March.
    via u/Educational_Infidel
  • DIGGYRULES Boy, let me tell you. If admin wants me to give out pencils all day every day, they'd better be supplying them.
    via u/DIGGYRULES
  • Jak1977 Better yet, send every kid to admin to ask for a pencil. As soon as it affects them, admin is very effective at problem solving. Though, I bet you won't like their solution, which is usually to make it your problem again.
    via u/Jak1977
  • CelerySecure I just buy embarrassing pencils when they go on sale or get free ones from events. I had like over 1000 from an Earth Day festival where they were going to just throw them out. My Justin Bieber pencils always got returned. I wish I could find some Nickleback ones or something even more cringy.
    via u/CelerySecure
  • IHaveNoEgrets You can actually buy bulk boxes of printing rejects! They might not be cringe, but they'll be absolutely confusing.
    via u/IHaveNoEgrets
  • adelie42 I was told explicitly that if I don't give a pencil every time they ask, even if it is three times an hour, I am denying them education access. That said, the school paid for it. I went through a case of 5,000 pencils in one semester across 64 kids. The place was a dumpster fire.
    via u/adelie42
  • Exileddesertwitch What grade do you teach? I teach 4th grade. I would never want smelly 10 year olds taking their shoes off. (I'm in Arizona though so maybe you live somewhere cooler and they won't have stinky feet.)
    via u/Exileddesertwitch

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