How to help teachers buy classroom supplies

For the past several years, Eight Cousins, the independent bookstore in Falmouth, Massachusetts, has erected an artificial Christmas tree near its front register and decorated it with paper ornaments featuring the ages and sometimes first names of 300 to 500 children and teenagers.

Local schools and organizations provide the store with the names, ages and often the type of books each child likes to read. Customers can take an ornament off the tree and search for a book for that child or enlist the help of one of the store's workers.

There are also some ornaments with cash amounts on them that go into a general fund that's used to purchase books for any children whose names weren't selected. Any cash donations remaining are applied to the purchase of the following year's books. Eight Cousins gives buyers a 15% discount on the books they purchase from the giving tree.

The effort increases sales a bit for an independent bookstore operating in a small village on Cape Cod where foot traffic dips dramatically in the winter months. It also provides an opportunity for customers to give back to the community, whether they live there or not. But mostly, the effort gets books into the hands of children who express a desire to own a book of their own, but who might not be able to afford the purchase of a new book.

Are strangers ethically responsible for purchasing books for people they don't know? No. That they want to do so anyway if they're able suggests a commitment to their community that should be applauded.

But it's not just at holiday time when resources like books are in need.

That local schools are involved in Eight Cousins annual giving tree project is not surprising. Most teachers go out of their way to provide students with materials and supplies that might help them learn. It's also well-publicized that many teachers spend their own money to supplement the supplies for their classrooms. According to the Economic Policy Institute, kindergarten through 12-grade public school teachers spend an average of $459 a year of their own money to purchase school supplies. (The range goes from North Dakota teachers averaging $327 to California averaging $664 out of pocket.)

Just as Eight Cousins has its giving tree of names, many teachers have taken to the internet to post wish lists for supplies and materials they otherwise would be paying for with their own money.

Donorschoose.org was founded in 2000 by teacher Charles Best. On the site, teachers can post requests for funding for projects. Anyone can search the listings for projects and help fund them.

Another site, Teacherlists.com, was founded by Tim Sullivan in 2012. It features supply lists and wish lists from teachers. Anyone can look up a school's list and link directly to any number of online merchants to fulfill their lists.

Again, there is no ethical imperative that anyone should contribute to help offset the cost of school supplies often paid for by public school teachers. But if anyone is looking for another way to help teachers do their job and students benefit from their efforts, then chipping in is the right thing to do. 

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. 

Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 

Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 

(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.