Dear All,

Beginning in grade 3, all students at the Academy are required to have a 13-pocket expanding file folder. Why do we insist on this?

First, the expanding file keeps students' backpacks reasonably light. I hope you agree that a 9- or 10-year-old child should not need to take a rolling suitcase to school each day! We use the expanding file in lieu of large binders or multiple spiral notebooks that weigh students down and can cause serious injury to their backs.

Second, the expanding file acts as a portable communication center. The first section is the "inbox," and the second is the "outbox." Papers that require parental attention land in the inbox, and this is where you should look for permissions slips, newsletters, and other communication from the administration or from your child's teacher. The "outbox" is for communication going from the home to the school: signed permission slips and forms, tardy notes, etc. It is the teachers' responsibility to make sure their students file homeward-bound paperwork in the inbox, and the parents' responsibility to check the inbox every night and to file any papers to be returned in the outbox for the teachers to collect the next morning. Since they receive little written homework, younger students (PreK-2) have only a two-pocket folder: the left side is the inbox, and the right side is the outbox.

Finally, the expanding file helps students develop important organizational and study habits. Each paper that the student uses has a place in the expanding file. The sections behind the inbox and outbox should be labeled with the names of the academic subjects. A fifth grader, for example, would have Composition (including Grammar and Spelling), Math, History/Geography, Literature, Latin, Science, Art, Music, Drama etc. A tenth grader might have Algebra, Logic, Latin, Greek, Biology, Humanities, Art, Music, Drama etc. In both cases, the last section is for extra loose-leaf paper.

As the student receives papers, he files them in the appropriate section, with the most recent papers in front. (We instruct students to "head" or label their papers with their name, the teacher's name, the subject, and the date). As the sections fill up, students remove old papers and file them in a three-ring binder at home. Because each paper is dated, and appears in roughly reverse chronological order in the expanding file, it is easy to take out a stack of papers and sort them into the binder from oldest to newest, giving students both a tidy storage method and an accessible resource for review.

For the system to work properly, the following guidelines are key:

1. Parents must provide an appropriate expanding file and make sure the student brings it to school every day.

2. Teachers must instruct the students to file papers at the end of each class period and see to it that the students follow through.

3. Teachers must make sure that the files go home every night.

4. Parents must check their children's inboxes every night.

5. Students, with help from their parents, must regularly move excess papers from the file to the home-based binder (at least quarterly; ideally every 2-4 weeks).

6. Parents must provide plenty of college-ruled loose-leaf paper, and students must refill their paper sections as needed, ideally weekly. (Some families find it convenient to do this on Sunday evenings, along with making lunches and setting out uniforms for Monday morning.)

7. Parents should not send other types of paper, notebooks, binders, etc. to school unless expressly requested by a particular teacher, as these products conflict with the folder system.

8. Parents must work with their children to make sure that backpacks do not become a black hole for loose papers. (Teachers support this habit with guideline #2.)

I hope this brief explanation helps you understand the "NECA way" of organizing and transporting papers.

Sincerely,
Mario