Covering books. AIBU to think we were had at school in the past

[Hottubtimemachine]

My kids are at senior school and there has not been one mention of covering their books. I remember spending literally HOURS doing this and even got a detention once for not covering my French book.
Why were we made to do this? What was the point? Does anyone still do it? AIBU to think teachers robbed me of hours of my life 😉

This was the best thing about school. We even did our exercise books!!!

What do people use to back books with these days?

I’d totally forgotten about this! Happy memories, I loved it.

wallpaper or brown paper for text books and comic/magazine/posters for exercise books.

AND a stencil to write your name...no shitty handwriting.
Or transfer letters from WHSmith.

I'm not from the UK but you had to cover your books? Text books or exercise books? And what with? Why?? This all sounds insane.

Definitely time wasting.
We only covered exercise books, not text books.
Only in the equivalent of Y7.

Oh bog off you lot, with your brown paper/ holograph wrap/ Smash Hits poster covered books, when there was me with my wonky, baggy arsed, anaglypta efforts

Was always exercise books that had to be covered at my school.

I had a key for the career's office so used to hide my textbooks in there and collect what I needed before the lesson. (I had a twenty minutes bus trip then a 2.5 mile walk home so carrying them, especially when I had multiple, used to make my back ache)

Blast from the past remembering this! I had to use really horrible old wallpaper that had been leftover for years while my mates had nice wrapping paper. Theirs ripped almost instantly whereas mine was like card so stayed put for the year but still...I wanted wrapping paper too.

Please can someone share why exercise books were wrapped too? There is zero logic in that

@XenoBitch

I remember having to do this in French lessons, but not science or maths. I used garish holographic wrapping paper.

Was it gold one side and silver the other, and had holographic square on it? I used that on all my books, gold side for the lessons with good teachers and silver for the teachers that were dicks, oh happy days

I bought sticky-back plastic specially for DS to start secondary school. Now I have three rolls and no use for them hmm

Where did you get it from please? I need some for my classroom and there seems to be a shortage around here!

Always felt this excercise pointless as I would loose my book within a week

I had to use that awful foamy wallpaper (I can't remember the name!) so my books all doubled in size! I got my little brothers those plastic ones from stationery box before they could be forced to do they same.

If you saw my teen's school books after sitting in his sweaty bag for a week with a mouldy banana, you'd be happy the cover was wipe clean. 🤢

Please can someone share why exercise books were wrapped too? There is zero logic in that

I think it's because if the teacher doesn't agree with the doodles/graffiti then it's easier to remove the wrapping than replace the book.
My old English teacher used to correct graffiti with a big red pen, it certainly meant that all exercise book graffiti had perfect SPaG.

Oh we did this to but only exersize and jotter books.
Wallpaper ,,wrapining paper , pages out of magazines, and my Dad could get very wide selotape , which we always used to waterproof our books after we had used the wallpaper etc

I'd forgotten about that! I went to school in Australia and we had to cover text books and exercise books AND our foolscap 2 ring binders. ( you young 'uns, foolscap folders is the equivalent of A4 folders!) Can you remember how we cut the corners diagonally so that the corners would fold down neatly?

I bought some wrapping paper from a market stall in the late 80s and the shop keeper asked me if it was to cover my school books. I said "no it's for wrapping a birthday present". I was 19 and on lunch break from my job. I knew I looked young but to think I looked young enough to be mistaken for a young teen put my nose out of joint a bit.

However I thought it hilarious and so did the people in the Post Office queue when I was asked my age when I bought a lottery ticket and I told the cashier I was 34.

In my local schools here in Ireland every single book has to be covered. Primary and secondary, all books for all three children. Such a pain. And to add insult to injury we have to buy all the bloody books too. It costs a small fortune every year

Some teachers at my school still insist on it. I dont as I am trying to reduce plastic waste so don't want everyone sticking plastic all over their books and also because if I let some of the kids take their books home I will never see them again. Homework is done on paper!
I do think it is time schools were funded enough to move on from writing everything in books though. It is archaic and surely hardly anyone works like that in real life. As usual I expect it would cost too much to fund laptops for every pupil.

We still have to do their exercise books in sticky back plastic.

Some subjects ask them to decorate them first - that seems to stop after year 8!

This has brought back memories. I loved doing mine but it's funny reading that people with wallpaper thought it was bad! I envied the wallpaper kids. I thought they must live in fancy houses.

We're in France and I just had to do it for a whole of set of textbooks for DS1 who is only 8! Not a skill I have used for about 25 years though it did come back to me . . .

Loved using anaglypta as when I was bored in class I could dig my nail into the raised bumps

I was crap at mine, my cousin would do it for me!