Today’s teachers have more than their fair share of complaints about Gen Z and Gen Alpha students. Educators say many of them are rude, behind on core skills, inattentive, and unmotivated.
One teacher just wishes they’d stop breaking all of her pencils. In a recent video on TikTok, Jess, who teaches middle school, shared that her students were losing and destroying their supplies at an alarming rate, forcing her to rethink her classroom pencil policy.
“My students went through 2,000 pencils in four months,” she says. That’s the fastest rate she’s seen in her seven years of teaching. She says much of it comes down to the kids purposefully breaking and throwing the pencils in class.
But to make matters worse, these were no ordinary pencils. Jess supplies her classes with Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils, widely considered the cream of the crop of everyday writing pencils. Jess pays for them each semester out of her own pocket because she believes it’s important for her students to have access to high-quality materials, and we all know the school district isn’t going to pony up. That’s what makes the loss of so many pencils in such a short amount of time so frustrating.
Teacher Jess came up with a great idea
“There is a lack of respect for property that isn’t theirs,” she says. Jess then had an interesting choice. She could stop buying and issuing high-quality pencils, but would the kids really learn anything? Ultimately, she came up with a better idea: a clever new classroom pencil policy.
Starting in the new semester at the beginning of 2026, each of her students would receive one pencil per month. Not only that, but the pencil would be engraved with their name. If they lose their pencil before the month is up, they’re out of luck. Jess even went out of her way to get each kid the color and style of their choice, along with a pencil pouch to make it easier to keep track of their writing tool.
A few months later, Jess was ready to issue a long-awaited update. Since her first post went up on social media, it has received over eight million views and thousands of comments from fellow teachers and parents cheering her on.
In short, it worked out far better than she ever could have hoped. Not only did the new policy help her preserve more pencils and save money on supplies, but the kids also began internalizing some amazing lessons.
Personal property became a point of pride for her students
For starters, the kids loved the pencils in their chosen color with their name engraved on the side. They were excited to take better care of them and were motivated to avoid losing them and being stuck with whatever cheap loaner was lying around.
The new policy even began to have an impact on the sense of community in the classroom. Jess was able to teach a few students to use the engraving machine, so now the kids are responsible for making their own new batch of pencils every month.
She also noticed that students were beginning to help each other out and hold each other accountable. After class, students scoop up loose pencils from the floor and return them to their rightful owners or drop them in the lost-and-found box. A few kids still struggle with throwing and breaking pencils, but the majority of her kids have fully gotten on board.
Overall, the system is a vast improvement in more ways than one.
Surprisingly, teachers have come up with all kinds of inventive ways to keep students from losing or breaking classroom supplies, especially pencils.
Classroom pencil policy strategies range from “pencil debt,” a system in which the class works as a group to keep track of all pencils throughout the week, to reward charts, regular check-ins, collateral systems, and more.
Dedicated educators make a real difference
It’s amazing that educators would go through so much trouble. Perhaps the more obvious solution would be to just force kids to provide their own supplies if they can’t be trusted to take care of the ones their teachers provide.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that nearly every teacher at some point is forced to buy needed supplies for the classroom out of their own paycheck. They’re also severely underpaid in most cases, which makes the burden of furnishing the class that much heavier.
However, the best educators, like Jess, refuse to give up on the younger generations. Instead, they find problems that seem hopeless—like a lack of respect for materials—and creatively turn them into teachable moments. She could have cut them off, expressed her disappointment, and left them feeling dejected. But instead, she crafted a brilliant lesson in responsibility, respect, and community. Her students will carry it with them into their next classrooms and beyond.
