Is it a sin to throw away a set of 1972 Funk n Wagnalls?

If so, bless me, for I have sinned.

I am cleaning out a jam-packed teacher's closet in the hopes of creating an organized environment for teaching and learning. I began hoping to find lots of useful stuff. So far, that hope seems to have been in vain. The closet was once the province of a teacher who retired after 30 years. Apparently her curriculum consisted entirely of holiday-themed activities involving ancient Hallmark decorations.

But at least my room has a closet, and there are things in it. The same cannot be said for the rest of the school. Between yesterday and today, I have requested the following items from the secretary:

1. A pair of 'adult' scissors.
2. A stapler. And staples.
3. A sponge and bucket.
4. A single pack of post-its.
5. Construction paper or bulletin board paper.

The secretary is very nice, but has been unable to give me any of these things. Either the school does not have them at all, is waiting for them to arrive, or the secretary cannot find them because volunteers are painting her office and she boxed up all her stuff.

However, this does not stop the other teachers from reminding me that I should really get to work on my bulletin boards. My co-workers are obsessed with bulletin boards. I am not sure how this sort of thing happens.

I'm also not sure why there are NO SUPPLIES OF ANY SORT in the building. My principal is certainly dedicated, and apparently spends a good deal of time asking for donations from pretty much everywhere she can think of. The problem is: the places she thinks of just aren't all that great. And so, practically everything in the school is a well-worn hand-me-down. Consumable items (e.g. sponges, paper, and post-its) are hard to come by that way. And the non-consumables...well, they are just things that nobody wants any more. Therefore, I have a closet full of educational software on old floppy disks...and when I say old, I mean the big card-board covered kind. The kind I used when *I* was in elementary school.

I threw those away along with the encylopedias.