A new school year means stocking up on pencils, pens, and folders, but for art students, this entails trips to the art store, searching for the needed supplies.
“There were a lot of things out of stock,” freshman Peyton Williams, a student in Drawing 1 who spent $65 on art supplies, said, “I was trying to find different stuff so it was a bit stressful getting everything I needed.”
Experiences like this are not uncommon among art students as they navigate the long list of needed supplies. Depending on the class, necessary materials might include clay, glaze, watercolors, or sketch pads, some of which can range on the expensive side. Requiring the purchase of expensive materials on the behalf of students in order to partake in class activities presents a complicated problem, especially for families struggling with financial hardships.
Because of this, teachers end up carrying the responsibility of ensuring supplies are accessible to all.
“If anyone can’t purchase supplies, we do have things like notebooks, pencils, colored pencils at every table, and I’m ordering excess clay for people that can’t purchase it,” Ceramics and 2D art teacher Beverly Sanchez said. “I remind my students every day that they can come talk to me if something’s going on, and that’s no problem at all. I always make sure that I purchase excess amounts to provide for students.”
This responsibility pushes teachers to focus their yearly budgets on extra art supplies. “Certain people can’t afford to buy anything, who I supply everything for, which is where a lot of my budget goes,” art teacher Omar Otero said.
Additionally, restricted budgets prevent teachers from being able to give students the full class experience.
Despite teachers prioritizing supplies within their budget, ensuring that students buy the supplies they can afford is essential in the classroom. “When I supply them paper they mess up, they throw it away and ask for another sheet. If it’s their paper, they don’t do that, all of a sudden they’re very conservative with their paper. It actually keeps the rooms a lot cleaner too, because they’re not throwing stuff all over the floor,” Otero said.
Putting more responsibility on students is important when learning to value expenses. “By purchasing their supplies, I think it helps them be responsible, because it’ll help you later on in life with meeting deadlines, certain things,” said Sanchez.
Overall, while the responsibility of students paying for their own art supplies has its pressures, it pushes teachers to strike a balance between fostering responsibility in the classroom and ensuring equitable access to educational resources.
