my school did.

I did when I was in High School but I always took it a step further by covering the entire cover with clear packaging tape. The cover would last the entire year. I remember one kid using 12 pack cardboard boxes of assorted coke flavors. I never could figure out how he did it though.

We had to at my high school. I don't know if it was a county-wide initiative or simply a school initiative. Since Firekracker went to another high school in the same county, she could tell you the answer.

I remember we were actually given book covers by some teachers. (Of course this was around the mid-90s...) Some were really cool; they were like coloring books. Others were simply an advertisement for local companies.

I think it truly depends on the location of the school system. Now in TN, where the budget for education SUCKS, this is a fairly common practice from what I have witnessed. As someone else mentioned above, it prolongs the lifespan of the textbook. The longer the textbook can last, the more money a system can put elsewhere.

I did this back in the day too! At the beginning of every school year we were told we needed to have all our books covered. I used brown paper bags mostly, but sometimes we were given covers with the school logo on it and some ads for local companies. The book covers usually lasted a couple weeks, then they got torn off and I don't think anyone ever recovered them. You didn't see a lot of covered books past the first month of school. :D

Stores around here give you plastic bags unless you request paper.

I used to have to do that, too. Everything, including workbooks, had to be covered. I usually used contact paper on the workbooks (which was ok because you just threw them out at the end of the year). For textbooks, I used either brown paper or store-bought book covers. My high school also gave out book covers with the school logo and a bunch of ads; I used those during HS, taking care to fold them so I wouldn't have to look at the ads all year. :p

I remember that one year my mother found these really nice transparent book covers. I nearly got detention because my teachers didn't believe I'd covered the books. :rolleyes:

Yep, it was often just the newest books though. We got free covers from a local bank which had a lovely drawing (that you could color) of kids carrying their books. They usually ended up with blue hair, Hitler mustaches or something of the like.

Yeah I did it but then after a while they started giving us book covers with advertisements. I didn't care. I drew in it and rubbed my snot up and down just to spite future generations and make sure I did better than them!

-Rudey

elementry and jr high i had to cover my books with paper bags


but like rudey just said in HS we covered our books with covers the HS gave us with ads all over it and school mascot crap

YES THEY DO
At least they do around here. As a matter of fact, they don't use paper bags, but there's these new covers you can buy that are solid colors and seem to be made of a fabric (lycra I think).

I used to cover my books in the comics section of the newspaper...i'd recover it every week or so for the new comics. I loved it though cuz when i was bored I could just keep reading the cover of my book!

MY students do...
 

I make sure my students cover their books...I have a giant stack of brown bags for them to use because those cloth covers do not protect the corners AT ALL. I forsee a very short future for my books if the kids don't cover them.:(

my little sister got me one of those book sock things... I couldn't figure out what it was at first. I gave it back to her because I have no use for it, but she was really excited to hear that you don't have to cover books in college (which will end as soon as she sees how much they cost).

One of my high school teachers was particularly strict about book covers, but she made it easy for us. At the beginning of the year, we cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines related to the class, glued them on cut paper bags, then she laminated it for us. That's the only book cover that ever lasted all year for me.

Whenever they'd give us the school ones with the ads on them, I'd just cover the book with the ads facing in so the plain white side was showing.

My brother is in 8th grade and he covers his books in paper bags. Or rather, I cover his books for him because he still can't figure out the concept of how to fold them correctly. :rolleyes: Hopefully he'll get it by the time he's a senior in HS.

Sometimes they do paper bags within plastic ones...the only times I've seen it done were so things wouldn't shift around too much while they are being carried. Normally I use cloth bags, because I think otherwise it's wasteful.

As for brown paper bag covers, we had to do it for a few hardcovers (like math and English) in elementary school. In middle school, we had a set of books for home and a set for school, so there was no point. In HS we bought our textbooks.

We had to do it in HS for some books; I think it depended on which class/teacher. All the science books had to be covered, for example. But we had book checks: every time we had a test, we had to show our book to prove that we had it covered, and that counted for a grade. It was really aggravating, having to bring the book to class when otherwise we wouldn't have had to.
I started out covering mine with saran wrap or the comics, but those covers fell apart reaaaally fast so after that I used good ol' brown paper bags.

Nearly all the HS and MS students in my area use these lycra/nylon type book covers.

I used the brown paper bags back in my day though.

Worked just fine :D