Did you think that one through?

One of our back to school surprises from our administration was new electronic pencil sharpeners.

Secretly, I was thrilled.  My one last year was broken by a student (yes, he did it on purpose) and I really didn't want to buy another.

We were gifted with these:

However, while it looks nice in my classroom:

It's beyond impractical.

This is the plastic portion that holds pencil shavings:

That's it.  I can sharpen maybe four pencils before it's time to dump it and start over.  In an elementary classroom with three dozen students (yes, you read that correctly), this is just silly.  The capacity is ridiculously small.  

Bostitch, did you think the design through on this?  What teacher sharpens only four pencils at a time?!

I miss my old sharpener:

If you're upgrading classroom supplies, don't upgrade to this product.  The only upside I see is that it was a gift.