1 Drowing in paper: A Southborough mom’s interesting experiment Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:12 am
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School papers stacking up (photo by Meredith O’Brien)
Math worksheets, spelling lists, announcements, letters to parents, sports schedules, concert notices. Have you ever stopped to consider how much paper is sent home with your kids over the course of the school year? One Southborough mom did, and it inspired her to undertake a very interesting year-long project.Meredith O’Brien, mother of two fifth graders and a third grader, decided to count every piece of paper her kids brought home and dumped on her kitchen counter over the course of the school year. She writes on her blog, Picket Fence Post:
The result? During the 2009/2010 school year, her kids brought home a mind-boggling 3,870 pieces of paper, more than 1,500 of those came in the last two weeks of the school year alone.Having spent the first few years of their lives as students feeling absolutely BURIED by paper – and constantly frustrated when teachers would complain that parents forgot stuff – I decided to determine if I’m just woefully disorganized or if it’s nearly impossible to keep on top of all this, no matter how many binders, organizing shelves and systems I attempt to employ to rein it all in.
In the past few years, all four Southborough schools have relied more on electronic means of communication in an attempt to be more green, but O’Brien says her kids were often sent home with paper duplicates of the electronic communications.
You can read more about O’Brien’s fascinating experiment on her blog.
Moms and dads out there, what do you think? Do the schools send home too much paper? How do you keep it all organized?]