The teacher fussed because they are underfunded and the teachers spend out of pocket for most expenses. Not having a pencil means somebody gotta supply the students with the necessities.... The teacher already broke as shyt so what can you do?
idk if that’s necessarily true...many teachers bought/found pencils and kept a bin for students to use...plus we didn’t really have to buy them...you could just take some out the supply closet
the only time I’d “fuss” w/ a student about a pencil when I was teaching @ the lower grade levels is if they just sat their and refused to work w/o @ least asking another student or myself for a pencil cuz if I pulled out some candy or another student did they’d be quick to ask about that...nothing wrong w/ not having a pencil but I was not gonna allow them to be content w/ not doing anything about it...they were young but still old enough (5th grade) to take initiative and solve minor problems like that on their own