Back to school in Clark County: Parents should make sure kids come prepared

Very soon, parents of school-age children will be purchasing back-to-school items, if you have not done so already. As an educator — high school, in my case — I implore you to make the best $5 investment you could make all year.

Proceed to the nearest dollar store and buy the following items for day one: a three-ring binder, a ream of notebook paper, a box of pens (blue or black please), a box of pencils and a daily planner.

For this meager investment, your child will come to us ready to hit the ground running on Aug. 14. It is not my intention to insult or undermine your decisions for your child. But year after year, students come in on the first day with few of these essential items to begin the academic year. It never ceases to amaze me that a student has a phone costing several hundred dollars but is asking me or a peer for a sheet of paper or a pen.

These kids would never leave the house without their phone. I would ask for the same attention to detail with the other items needed for their education.

Please do us another favor, if you would. When they retire for the evening, take the phone and secure it in the cradle to charge. Just because they said good night is no indication they are going to sleep. We start at 7 a.m., and the images I see getting off the buses in the morning look like the walking dead. Set the tone from day one, as many of us do with our classroom management, and I assure you a better outcome than you may have experienced last year.