These lists are perfunctory and I’m not sure the teachers are to blame. It looks like a blanket request, at least for the two schools my kids attend.

Good Luck as you begin this exciting adventure in our educational system.

I think a lot of the requests from teachers come from a place of convenience and habit — just like with every one of us with regard to whatever eco-sins we have. My kid’s teacher asked for paper cups and plates but was thrilled to get a couple sets of reusable ones from me as an alternative (note that that choice cost me more money, as is often the case with the more enviro choice – she may not have been comfortable asking for that up front). And you never know when your school or teacher will surprise you – that same teacher overheard me talking about compost with a friend in the hallway and eagerly asked me if I’d set her up with a worm bin cause she loved hers in her old school! So she’s going to lead me down that path. I do have to say that our neighborhood and school in general are pretty green, though, since we are all walkable to our little school and the school itself is small. I think the larger the scale of things, the harder it is to make careful (instead of expedient) choices. Another reason to have small schools!

But there’s no way I’d send hand sanitizer! Soap and water are good enough for getting hands clean. People are so obsessed these days with keeping germs away that it drives me nuts.