I had lunch with Ben at his school yesterday. Happy chit-chat with our sweet boy - I need to do that more often! Anyway, as I was heading out of the lobby, I saw something that cracks me up every time. There’s a machine located right by the entrance doors which dispenses pencils for $.25 each. Taped onto it is a small black and white sign that says, “Limit 4 per Day.” Seriously. What circumstances could have required that sign? I buy perhaps one pack of pencils a year for Ben. With the addition of colorful pencils given away in themed goody bags, he hardly even uses those up.
I imagine there were a fair number of kids who loved any excuse to get out of the classroom – and what more justifiable errand than purchasing a writing instrument? But was it a slippery slope? Did they become pencil dependent? Develop a #2 addiction? Were they pleading with their teachers for just one more hit? Were there kids forfeiting their college educations for their uncontrolled pencil habits? Peer interventions in the counselor’s office for friends who had fallen prey to the lure of a fresh eraser and unsharpened blunt point? Support groups down the hall that begin with, “Hi, I’m Jimmy. It’s been three days since I’ve bought a pencil.”
In the meantime, the modest sign remains there, an elementary school substitute for the caring bartender who cuts drinkers off after they’ve had a few too many and calls them a cab. But watch out when these kids discover Office Depot.
