Being a teacher in the U.S. is tough – people are always judging you, expecting you to do a lot with a little, and yeah, kids can be total sh*ts sometimes, just for fun.
Here are 15 times educators thought they were doing something cool or nice for their students by grabbing a bit-ticket item, only to realize shortly thereafter that it was a total waste of money.
15. I’m pretty sure this was the premise of a Seinfeld episode.
Name tags, shortly after Columbine and all those other shootings peaked in frequency.
It was supposed to keep outsiders from getting in the school unnoticed and shooting everyone but at the time people doing the shootings were always students. So we joked they were bulletproof.
14. It seems like someone should have known better.
iPads for the kindergarten.
They were intended to have educational apps on them that kids could play on at indoor recess.
Believe it or not, most kindergarteners would rather play on the swings or play with dolls than learn to write their name on an app.
No one used them, no one liked them and they all broke within two months.
13. They could have just had the art classes paint logos on them?
Trash cans with the school logo on them and banners.
They tried hyping us up about new trash cans on the morning show.
12. I don’t understand why this exists, nevermind why someone would buy it.
My high school purchased a vending machine that only contained Swerve. What is Swerve, you ask?
Carbonated milk.
11. I feel like that’s not true about the teachers.
A 3D printer that the teachers won’t learn how to use so now nobody is allowed to use it
10. Why does this always happen?
They made a huge screen with 4 huge plasma screens and put it in a very random place in a very random building hall
NO SIGNAL – NO SIGNAL
NO SIGNAL – NO SIGNAL
9. Surely there could have been a better use for those.
New tv’s in the cafeteria that just show the morning announcements
Edit: They already send out emails that have the morning announcements in them
8. That must have been some fancy camera.
Was on boys varsity soccer team in high school. New head coach, wanted to emphasize more analytical approach, and as such, had booster club buy a $10,000 goal post camera.
None of the team liked the idea anyway, especially since the girls soccer team used their money for new jerseys and nicer balls and they still made it farther in their playoffs than we did almost every year.
As it turns out, the coach couldn’t figure out how to put the camera together, and we never used it.
Biggest waste of $10,000 I’ve ever seen.
7. No on seems to know what to do with the televisions they need.
When 65″ TV’s were like $4K a pop they set about 8 of them around campus that just displayed the time. $4,000.00 clocks.
Not to mention whatever they used as a video source to send to the display.
6. Cutting down trees is always a poor use of cash.
A memorial tree was planted for a girl who was killed right before graduation by her family and friends.
The school allowed it and there was a beautiful Japanese maple tree there for like 10 years.
Apparently they just cut it down and had no reason why. Family is pissed, alumni are pissed.
5. Sooooo just a tower, then?
A clock tower with no clock.
Seriously.
4. I have no idea what to make of this but it makes me sad.
The large school yard at my school had a set of planters in the centre. They were basically four triangles made of brick that pointed in at each other and created an X shaped walkways between. The outside sides had a bench each attached.
People would sit and chat to each other on the benches, teachers and students alike. There was very little litter or vandalism. The plants were kinda pretty insofar as any secondary schooler would care to notice. One year a duck made her nest in one of the planters and apart from a few ‘oh hey a duck nest’ comments it was left alone.
Then for some reason the school decided to rip the planters out. Took them two thirds of the school year to do it and blocked off the X walkways so everyone had to crush by on the outside lanes between classes. Everyone was super curious as to what the planters would be replaced by.
Turns out, nothing. They simply bricked over the holes left by the planters and left it as a huge empty space. We didn’t even get new benches so no one had anywhere to sit during break. People started to miss the plants since the lack of colour left the whole area kinda bland. We also kept to the old X walkway since stepping over the former planters felt weird.
3. I need to know what the mascot was.
An anatomically… ambitious statue of our animal mascot.
2. College kids love food so that seems like a missed opportunity.
My college bought a small restaurant out for a million dollars to build a million dollar brick gate that doesn’t close.
1. I do not think teachers need this.
My son’s current school sent out an email to parents announcing that they’d like to add voice projection to every class.
He’s in 1st grade and there are 20 kids in his class, totally unnecessary. They had a demo session and it sounded horrible.
Kids, I tell ya. They are always there to throw a wrench in things, and also to remind you that you have no real idea what you’re doing.
Did your school ever do something like this? If you’ve got a story of your own, drop it in the comments!
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