The fabled drawer of confiscation
By Angela Watson
I was cleaning out my desk drawers today and had to laugh at the variety of kid stuff that got tossed in this year. My rule is: If I catch you with a toy, it must immediately go in your backpack. If I see the toy again, it’s mine until a parent writes a note giving permission for you to have it again. What’s left in my drawer are those items that kids don’t want to tell their parents they had in school. Good grief, I could open a pawn shop in here. Can you tell that three-quarters of my students were boys?
And yes, that’s the quality of post I’m producing this week. If you want something deeper, check out What Does It Mean to Finish Well? over on my devotions site. I thought about calling it “Why I Always Feel Like an Inadequate Failure at the End of the Year and Can’t Decide If That Perspective Is Warranted or Not Oh God I’m a Total Wreck and Should Have My Teaching License Revoked”. The first title was more succinct, so I went with that.
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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I think you're nicer than me. I threaten to throw things in the trash if I see them again (I too have the backpack rule for the first offense). Granted, I've only ACTUALLY thrown a few things into the trash over the years, but it really works as a preventative measure.
I still say that the 'power to confiscate' is one of the perks of the job. My confiscation drawer currently holds: chewing gum, a yoyo, a padlock, a whole range of those long, twirly erasers purchased at the Scholastic book fair but used mostly as toys/food and a range of hair accessories.
75% boys huh? I expect you can keep everything in there, boys forget about stuff like that in 5-10 minutes.
Someone's mom is wondering where the gun from the Monopoly game is? You could make an I Spy book out of those items. 🙂
I like your plan for having to have parent permission before the toy is returned.