Pencils, an annoying necessity.

     I have a love/hate relationship with pencils.  I work as a paraprofessional in a grade school, so I am around pencils and use them all day.  I like writing with a perfectly sharpened, new pencil that still has the eraser on top.  The problem is, when they become dull, it is almost impossible to sharpen them!  One of two things happen--either the wood comes up the point and won't sharpen away, leaving the user with 1/2 of a pencil tip or the pencil sharpens beautifully, but then as soon as you go to use it, the lead falls out. I have thrown away more pencils because they wouldn't sharpen. 

     The other issue is the sharpeners; none of them work properly.  The hand held ones become dull very quickly.  The wall mounted ones would work properly, probably, if the district maintenance/janitorial stall didn't insist on putting them up incorrectly.  The way they hang in my district is so that the narrow, end where is shavings are suppose to collect is towards the wall.  Leaving the shavings no where to collect, causing them to get caught in the grinding mechanisms and dulling them.  I have tried to put them back correctly, but the kids all think it is wrong and immediately fuss with the sharpener trying to put it back.  Electric sharpeners sound like a nice idea and usually work very well, the problem is they too break and need replacing after a time and the district and the teachers neither one wants to spend the money. 

     The end result of all of this is endless dull pencils that don't write well made worse by sharpeners that don't sharpen well.  I think more time is wasted by staff and student alike by messing with pencils and trying to find one that writes.  As a new parent (years ago) I purchased my child 48 (yes, the required number is 48!) of the high quality pencils knowing that having quality pencils are important.  The problem was that the teachers all dump them in a collective bin, so you have no incentive to purchase good quality pencils and believe me almost no one does.  Even the pencils that used to be good now seem to be cheapened.  Parents wonder how it is possible to run through so many pencils, well now you know.  A good number of them get chewed up just trying to sharpen them; another large amount get tossed because they just won't sharpen; and finally there are those students who break pencils either for fun or because they are frustrated.