Continuing from last week, the next object or set of objects disappearing from elementary schools is the hand-cranked pencil sharpener.

Even pencils are nearly gone. How do I know this?

First, I read an article on the internet about pencil sharpeners, but I already knew that pencils were leaving because I must have most of them at my house.

Let me explain. No, I did not take them. I believe that someone took the pencils and printed different company names or logos on them and began giving them away. Someone brought them to our house and has hidden them all over.

My husband, in an unprecedented moment decided to clear off his dresser and didn’t stop there but cleaned out his desk drawers. That created a frenzy at our house. We cleaned out the junk drawer, my desk drawers and other various places that we keep important things.

At first we found over 50 pencils, many not even sharpened and that doesn’t count the ones we threw away because they were stubs or too broken. We are not done yet. Every day we find more that someone has hidden. We haven’t looked in the garage or the basement or our cars yet.  I am sure that more have been hidden in those places. I even found one in the seat cushions of my sofa. I think we are well over 100 pencils and collecting more everyday. They seem to be multiplying faster than we can find them.

Now back to the pencil sharpeners. Who needs one? We have one fastened to the wall in our pantry. I really need it now because I have this collection of unsharpened pencils that need to be sharpened.

The first pencil sharpener was developed in 1828 but the hand cranked one used in classrooms was developed much later. They had planetary gears covered with a casing, which caught the shavings. Getting up in class to sharpen your pencil was a great stalling tactic and an attention getter. Emptying the shavings in the wastebasket was a privilege.

Every pencil box had a prism sharpener, which had no moving parts. Pencils were inserted in the little box and twisted around so that the sharp blades inside could shave the wood and graphite tip.

Do we need pencils or sharpeners? Most anything written by hand today uses a ball point pen and it can now be done digitally (think  of signing your name on that little credit card  machine at the check out lane of the store).

I am sure that children today can find many reasons to leave their seats besides sharpening their pencil or getting a drink from the water fountain which was another stalling tactic as well as an attention getter. I am afraid that drinking fountains are going the way of the pencil and pencil sharpener. Ah ha! A topic for another week.

 

Jo-Ann Boepple works at the Edwardsburg Area History Museum