~ The Tape Nazi ~

I'm usually pretty picky about what our school supplies are used for. If they're paid for with school money, they should be used for school purposes, not to tape your nose in a disgusting position, not to draw & color a cute little smiley face for your friend's locker, and not to create paper airplanes.

As picky as I usually am, during this year when our supply budget was reduced by half, I became extremely picky.

Kids are constantly wanting to use my tape for non-school-related projects. Taping pencils/pens/notebooks they destroyed back together, hanging decorations on their locker. Typically they ask, and I tell them no. But they keep asking. Until this year.

This year, C & H have become obsessed with paper airplanes. Not just simple four-fold paper airplanes...complicated airplanes, requiring not only paper, but paperclips, staples, and frequently, tape. The two of them learned the hard way not to use my stash of lined paper to fuel their obsession. Instead, they blew threw an entire three years' worth of accumulated scrap paper in about a week. Their numerous requests for staples, tape, and paperclips were also turned down in no uncertain terms.

And yet....I walk back into the room during our latest indoor recess to find C & H in the corner taping together yet another convoluted paper airplane with my tape!

Without a word, I walk over, pluck the tape dispenser out of their little paws, and deposit it in my desk drawer. Where it has stayed ever since.

Students who need tape for legitimate school purposes have been wandering around the room looking in vain for the tape. When they finally come to ask me about it, they find they must undergo interrogation to determine why they want the tape, and finally, they are given the least amount of tape possible for their school-related project and sent on their way.

The Tape Nazi - that's what they've turned me into.