Constable: School shoppers can't write off pencils

Those back-to-school checklists in our brave new world require so much more than glue, lined notebooks and rulers. Little kids need to bring hypoallergenic tissues, baby wipes, hand sanitizer and Baggies. Older kids need to bring USB drives, headphones and powers strips.

But there is still room for the old-school mindset in the new-school world. People who do everything on their phones can't assume that the writing is on the wall for pencils and pens.

“I always end up writing down things,” says Alex Shivers, a 21-year-old senior at Loyola University shopping for school supplies with her dad at a Super Target in Schaumburg.

Preparing to student-teach on her way to becoming a special-education teacher, Shivers says she'll use a computer or pad to take notes in a pinch if the professor talks fast. “But I always go back later on and I write it on notecards or in a notebook.”

The physical process of writing information with a pen or pencil on paper helps her learn, says Shivers, adding, “There's nothing like it.”

She's not alone.

Imports of pencils, which hit a low in 2006, have risen every year since, according to statistics released this week by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association. Not many are made in the U.S. any more.

More than 50 million U.S. students use Dixon Ticonderoga products every day, according to the company, which was started in 1795 and manufactures pencils and other writing and art supplies. An essay by Dixon Ticonderoga CEO Tim Gomez, who also serves as president of the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association, cites several academic studies recognizing the value of writing things out by hand.

“Honestly, I prefer to take notes with a pen or pencil and a notebook,” says shopper Justyna Piwowarczyk, 23, who takes general education classes at the College of DuPage and studies architecture at the University of Illinois in Chicago. “I feel I concentrate better.”

While the iconic, yellow, Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil holds a special grip on students who have taken those standardized tests that require filling in a circle for each answer, pencils also appeal to toddlers.

“Having girls is especially hard,” says Kelly Schmidt of Palatine, as she shops for school supplies for her kids Megan, 6, and 3-year-old twins Bryan and Lindsay. Wearing a dress featuring the Disney movie “Frozen,” Lindsay had already dropped a pack of “Frozen” pencils into the shopping cart.

“They're particular about their colors. They pick out 'Frozen' colors,” Schmidt says, as she puts those unneeded “Frozen” pencils back on the shelf. Traditional, cheaper pencils do make the cart.

A parent could trek from store to store to find the lowest prices on every item on a child's back-to-school list. But that's a luxury parents shopping with kids in tow often don't have.

Michele Fecarotta of Elk Grove Village, shopping for school supplies with Gianna, 1, and Angelina, 3, personally has moved on from pencil and paper.

An English Language Learning teacher for young students at a Glenview school, Fecarotta says, “I like my laptop,” she says, “and my phone.”

That trend has changed sales at Logsdon Office Supply in Elk Grove Village, which has been serving businesses for half a century.

“It's nowhere close to where it used to be,” veteran sales rep Steve Carli says of pencil sales. “I can't remember the last time I sold a pencil sharpener. In the old days, they were using ledgers. They'd always do it in pencil in case they made a mistake and had to erase.”

But his grandson, Jake, who is starting kindergarten this fall, needs pencils. For some, it's a lifelong habit.

“When I was in school, it was all paper and pencils and taking notes,” says shopping dad Keith Shivers, a Navy project manager for the Department of Defense. When he was an engineering student, a trip to the computer lab to use the dot-matrix printer was as high-tech as he got, and he still hand-writes notes to himself. Not only does his daughter Alex still like to write with pens and pencils, Shivers has another shopping trip in store for his younger daughter, Hollie, who will be a freshman at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she'll be expected to draw by hand.

“For her,” Shivers says, “there are lots of pencils.”