For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 08, 2024

INCENTIVE FOR SURE ! ! ! !

Yep, put that monkey right back on her back.

Pencils? Now it’s an expensive computer and it belongs to the school. The only supplies a girl needs nowdays is a bag full of makeup.

Ruler? Pencil sharpener? When is this strip supposed to take place—the 1950’s??

It doesn’t work. I had pencils with my name on it, but they got stolen anyway. (Didn’t work as an adult, either, when I did it with Sharpie pens.)

What if Liz loses something that had her name on it? Will Elly then agree to pay to replace it? Or will Elly just assume that if it gets lost, it must mean it didn’t have Liz’s name on it? I don’t see any way that Liz is not going to be paying for everything she loses.

But honestly, who still does this when they reach high school?

Once again, “Proper motivation”.

My mother always said “Hit ’em where it hurts – in the pocketbook!”

The ONLY thing I liked about elementary school starting was a new pencil box of writing instruments. I still like nice pens and pencils. As for school, hated it!

I was waiting for Liz to say “But that’s not fair!”

Trivia point. When I started high school at age 14 some 20 years before this original date of 1995, the pencils we used in elementary school were banned! We had to use blue ink pens in high school! (Even though the school janitor had a harder time sanding off blue ink we doodled onto the wooden school desk tops when the teacher wasn’t looking.)

I was working at a bank, in the computer tape library. Entry level jobs, this girl had bought pencils from Regal (catalogue, cards, paper and gifts), they could be personalised, so she had her name on them. After using them at work for a few weeks, and losing a few, the bank CEO calls her up to his office for a meeting. You guessed it, one of them landed on his desk, he was interested (12% at that time) in where it came from.

I still enjoy using wooden pencils, esp for crossword puzzles

Incentive? Nothing is more of an incentive for a new relationship than a date that wants to split the bill with you. lol

Even calculators are cheap now

That got her attention!

“The only incentive of a slave is to avoid getting punished for not doing the minimum. There is no reason to perform better than that. A free worker knows that the more he achieves, the more he will profit.” -Anonymous

We had nuns when I was in elementary school. Perish the thought to write anything in a book that wasn’t supposed to be written in!

What is a “math set?”

Consequences drive behavior – first rule of parenting…

Good for you, Elly!

Great facial expressions today!

Ooga Farley!

Booga Farley!

Googa Farley!

Mooga Farley!

So where does Liz get the money to buy anything? Mom?

When our kids were 5 and 6, they begged Mom for a quarter to buy something out of those machines at grocery stores. Finally, she said, “You have plenty of quarters from aunts and uncles, grab one before we go shopping.” Once they realized those trinkets weren’t worth THEIR quarter, they stopped. Talk about a good lesson.

That’s exactly what I told my 6 children! It works!

And the mother emerges triumphant once again!

In the 70’s and 80’s, just generic school supply lists: pencils, pens, paper, ruler, folders. Unlike it is today where you have to get a certain color for certain classes. My mother would always buy pee chee folders. If I wanted anything else, I would have to buy them out of my pocket. Trappers where the rage in the 80s.

Great response, Ellie! If my daughter wanted something when we were shopping, she would think twice if I said, “I’ll get it, but you’re paying me back when we get home!” She did for some things, but not very often. When both girls were younger, I would buy one of those Little Golden Books once or twice a month for them. Then, I’d read it to them before bed.

Mom logic is infallible.

I usually collected the kids’ school supplies and saved what could be used the next year. One year a middle school child had to have a separate binder for each class. At the end of the year I asked him where his binders were, He replied that his teacher kept them because she was going into real-estate. I was furious! I would have confronted her but I had no way to prove that the binders she had belonged to my son.

That’s what happens when parents show their kids there are consequences for their behavior.

Nothing costs more, than when you have to pay for it yourself.

School is free

Healthcare is free

Elly’s parents get money from the government for being old

Lawrence gets money from the government for being gay

Miss Edwards gets money from the government for being crippled

But Elizabeth has to pay out of pocket for supplies she needs.

Some place Canada is.

Suppose you fall in love with a boy. You’ll wanna write his name all over your stuff.

What about having to buy your own textbooks? Especially in college