School detention for forgetting a ruler?

The problem is things are stolen all the time. I use to buy full essentials for students who would forget things by October half term they would have disappeared or be broken.
Personally , I would help my DC to pack and check their bag and pencil case every night. One Claddically Autistic and the other undiagnosed ADHD. They both eventually learnt.

But here you're saying all that stuff you've set up is helping you and you would be worse off without it. I'm arguing for children to be helped to have it in place for them too, in the first instance.

Having equipment in the classroom disincentives this for parents and children.

It being very difficult is not a reason not to try but a reason to try harder, in childhood with more parental support.

You could just let your husband or someone else do all your organising for you (like the teachers do now for children) but you don't want that do you? No one does because they realise the value in being able to do things themselves, children need to be given the tools and the incentive to do this too.

If they forget a pen, they borrow a spare from a friend, the person sitting next to them, the teacher, or their form tutor.

There is no shortage of ballpoints.

I'd make them hand over their phones, they'd be unlikely to leave without them and it would avoid the stinky feet issue*

*DD's school is a shoes off school, I wonder if it gets smelly in the classrooms or not. Thankfully I don't have to find out.

But you do need a pen / pencil

You don't need to draw to scale in order to be able to do maths.

But if the builder goes home or to the last job where he left it or to B and Q to buy one the job will take him longer.
Not that much difference

It makes doing geometry impossible, just to give one example.

And supportive parents?
Don't underestimate what difference this makes

You have to keep them up for them to work.

And here, in a nutshell, is why many of your "systems" don't work for ND people who struggle to maintain attention and focus. Because their brains are simply not wired to "keep them up".

What if it's a pen?
The world might not end of they can't draw a straight line but if they've got nothing to write with it's not so trivial

The school system in the UK is beyond laughable , from someone who was educated in Scandinavia where there are no detentions and way better educational outcomes

DS had double of everything, so didn't have to take pens/rulers out of the bag at home. Didn't have anything fancy so doubling up didn't cost too much, but did mean he didn't forget anything

If you had received a negative consequence for forgetting items at school perhaps you would be more equipped to remember items now and your life would be easier

Blimey. Thanks for telling me where my life has gone so wrong.

Small, cheap, easy breakable, easily mislaid items like pens are nothing like boxes of tools or laptops. I use pens every day myself. If I get to work and don’t have one to hand, I’ll visit the stationery cupboard or borrow one. Feels like kids are paying the price for adult financial problems.

Yes there will be natural consequences in those scenarios. Being given a detention isn’t one of them though.
I’ve never seen a builder get detention because they forgot a hammer. They might have to go and get a hammer. They might have to use a different tool to complete a different task that day. But I’ve never kept one back 15 minutes as a punishment.

There's little point in claiming that you weren't suggesting that ND people were stupid if you are then going to treat them as though they were stupid.

Yes, they know all these little tricks and systems. You don't need to list them like it's some sort of revelation from on high. Most people will have tried a myriad of these techniques and in many cases, they simply don't work. Not the case for everyone - lots of people with ADHD and similar traits will find these systems work for them. But for a significant number, they won't.

Like you think I wouldn't help my fucking child who will most likely be the same as me. It's a joke. People are often trying their best and then get shouted down by people who don't understand and can't be arsed even trying to.

You really don't get it do you.

I haven't given up. That's why I have a job and manage to keep a child alive and a house mostly alright. Because I don't fucking give up.

What I do do, is continue to set fucking reminders, Alexa messages, post it fucking notes, get my husband to ring me, put everything on a calendar and so on and so fucking forth every single fucking day of my life and it is fucking exhausting.

And because of that I get by. Right. I get by.

But despite all of that trying which you think is so simple and straight forwards I forget things all the pissing time. All the time. You could tell me something and I will have forgotten within minutes and it will occur to me often in the middle of the night that I haven't done it. I can set an Alexa reminder but If I so much as think of something else before I get up and do that thing it has often gone.

I write everything down. Everything. But I sometimes forget to check.

I cannot programme my brain like you can yours. It is not an option for me to "give up".

I sincerely hope you are not a teacher. Sincerely.

I agree there is no perfect system and i like efficient once a day checks. My gripe was minor - not one i would express to the school. But i still find it odd you can get a detention for not having equipment for a lesson you dont have that day. And you cant say "sorry, no protractor today but maths isnt until wednesday' and the teacher cant go "ok remember it on wednesday"

I was a deputy and then a head in the 90s - the Tories (who were only ousted in 1997, so better budgets only started arriving in 98) had absolutely run school finance into the ground between 79 and 97. TAs were non-existent in almost all secondary schools, for example.

The problem is partly funding - having spares × many in each classroom costs a lot - and these items WILL disappear with students on a regular basis. But it's also the disruption caused to each lesson by x kids in each lesson sticking up their hands to announce they don't have equipment (some will come to school on a regular basis with NONE), the dishing out of various items, the reclaiming of items (can each teacher remember to whom she gave what?), etc.

Every day, every lesson. If the school is reacting in this way, it's because too many students are failing to bring equipment too often.

You can just give up if you want, you're an adult. I think children should be helped by their parents to find ways to make their lives easier and smoother, not just be written off as incapable.

It wouldn't annoy me in the slightest if every single student in the class forgot their ruler. They'd simply have to go without for an hour. I'm sure they could manage.

The world will not end because a 13 year old isn't able to draw a straight line.

I have plenty of things to worry about in my job - they involve budgets, deadlines, handling data and accurate financial reporting. Not the contents of a fucking pencil case!

I simply don't understand how teachers can complain incessantly about being over-worked, yet spend their time and energy flapping about such trivial matters.

A pen is not a minor thing for a child in school, it is the tool they need to complete almost everything they will do all day so is more akin to a tradesperson's tools for example which if they forgot them they would feel a negative consequence.

If you had received a negative consequence for forgetting items at school perhaps you would be more equipped to remember items now and your life would be easier, I think we should give children the chance to see for themselves not write them off as incapable.

My dc school have detentions for not having equipment when needed. The form tutors do a random uniform and equipment check once a week too where everyone has to show they have correct uniform, pe kit if it's a pe day and that their pencil case is fully stocked. DS3 has SEN so gets an allowance for some things, so he is allowed to wear non uniform shoes and he gets 5 warnings instead of the usual 3 for disruptive behaviour or daydreaming.