Parent voluteers, who are they?

[Anonymous]

I was at my local public school, and listened to a parent volunteer helping a child with reading. The parent did not have a great grasp of English (I think that she was a Francophone), and she was consistently telling this child something that was wrong about phonics. I was a bit concerned since this child struggled with the issue for 5 minutes. I said nothing since it was not my child's class. My child is actually not yet enrolled there.
Can someone tell me if the schools plan to screen the volunteers more? I suppose that the schools will be using them a lot in the future. BTW, this woman was trying, but perhaps she could have been used to help with math instead?

[Anonymous]

Parent volunteers are simply that. They are volunteers.

They don't really get screened significantly, because they're just supposed to help when the teacher is busy with the rest of the class.

[Anonymous]

Normally the teacher finds the voluteers helpful

[Anonymous]

I had a similar experience, but at the preschool level. Parents were asked to help with providing tours and one of the parents had a very poor grasp of English grammar. She was extremely nice and friendly but also included a lot of "aint"s and so forth in her spiel.

[Anonymous]

So?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So?

So presumably PP would prefer her child be exposed to correct English. Children are little language sponges and they soak up what they hear. I don't think it's elitist or in any way out of line for a parent to want proper grammar and respectful word choices to be modeled for her child.

[Anonymous]

This was a parent giving a tour to other parents.

[Anonymous]

The teachers choose to have voluteers to help them. You can also make your own choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was a parent giving a tour to other parents.

Yes, and it speaks to the parent's level of education and desire to speak proper English. It may be reflected in her child's speech. It may be reflective of the school's parent community. Or it may not. In any case, the PP is allowed to make judgments on that. You may not like the judgments she makes, but she is nonetheless allowed to make them.

[Anonymous]

Fine. But I would like to have heard why exactly she thought this was a problem. Some judgments are based on good reasons; some are based on none whatsoever.

More broadly, as someone volunteers at three schools and in the community (and yes, I do also have a paying job), I am constantly struck by how hard it is to get people to volunteer. If people are dissatisfied with the quality of the volunteers at their schools, perhaps they themselves could volunteer to improve the program rather than criticize those who already freely give their time.

[Anonymous]

7:37 here. Hello everyone. My concern regarding the parent giving tours is that while it is totally fine for that parent to help with tours, she might also be helping out in the classroom. She was a lovely person who was generous with her time to the preschool. Yet I felt a bit uncomfortable with the kids being exposed to her incorrect use of the English language. I think some of the PPs are correct in tagging me for being a bit elitist ... I hate to admit that I hadn't even thought of it that way myself, so there's probably some truth to it. I am trying to reconsider my views a bit, but still hope that volunteers who help in the classroom are chosen with some care and not just their willingness to help, even though I highly admire and appreciate that willingness.

[Anonymous]

I think volunteers, particularly in preschools, are there simply because they are willing to help. Our preschool welcomes all parents to participate in classroom activities, which I think is wonderful. In response to the concern you have expressed, I would say three things: 1) volunteers typically do not spend that much time in the classroom compared to teachers, so their influence is not likely to be that great; 2) it is okay for kids to encounter some incorrect usage, as long as you correct them consistently at home; 3) it is impossible to protect children from incorrect usage altogether. They will hear it everywhere, even, dare I say, among highly educated DCUMs.

(I do agree that a non-native speaker who does not understand English pronunciation should not be teaching phonics, but that is a different issue.)

[Anonymous]

Schools are in a difficult situation in regards to parent and business volunteers. There is so much that schools need, however, beggers can't be chosers and they have to take what people offer. If a parent wants to volunteer, a teacher can do his/her best to steer them to a task that seems appropriate, however, schools and teachers receive pressure to get volunteers working with kids.... that is what lots of volunteers want to do even though they have not had any training. People assume b/c they are a parent or a volunteer from a business/company, they are educated enough to teach children. Clearly this is not the case, teaching is more than just having a child of your own or having a degree in another field. Volunteers are often not very interested in attending training, that isn't what they came for, they want to say "I work with kids." So be kind and think of a teacher's and school's perspective of what to do when someone wants to volunteer. I can say from experience that often what helps the teacher the most are the more tedious tasks so that her/his time is freed up either during the day or after school to spend time PLANNING good lessons that meet all students' needs. She doesn't need to be copying or cutting or organizing papers, this is the best gift many volunteers can give BUT the problem is THAT is not what a volunteer wants to do. Honestly, at some schools, finding things for volunteers to do is more of a chore than a gift b/c you have to be so careful and don't want to end up making more work for yourself by getting help.

[Anonymous]

i'm saddened by this thread. my partner and i are naturalized citizens and don't speak flawless english. it's already hard enough to get my partner whose english is less fluent than mine to volunteer in our DS preschool class because of the language barrier and the self-consciousness it brings upon her. but i try to do my share. now it turns out we're actually not welcomed by all because we don't command 'normal' english. OP i'm sorry to disappoint you but we will continue to volunteer for the sake of our DS so he can be proud of his parents participating in his school life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools are in a difficult situation in regards to parent and business volunteers. There is so much that schools need, however, beggers can't be chosers and they have to take what people offer. If a parent wants to volunteer, a teacher can do his/her best to steer them to a task that seems appropriate, however, schools and teachers receive pressure to get volunteers working with kids.... that is what lots of volunteers want to do even though they have not had any training. People assume b/c they are a parent or a volunteer from a business/company, they are educated enough to teach children. Clearly this is not the case, teaching is more than just having a child of your own or having a degree in another field. Volunteers are often not very interested in attending training, that isn't what they came for, they want to say "I work with kids." So be kind and think of a teacher's and school's perspective of what to do when someone wants to volunteer. I can say from experience that often what helps the teacher the most are the more tedious tasks so that her/his time is freed up either during the day or after school to spend time PLANNING good lessons that meet all students' needs. She doesn't need to be copying or cutting or organizing papers, this is the best gift many volunteers can give BUT the problem is THAT is not what a volunteer wants to do. Honestly, at some schools, finding things for volunteers to do is more of a chore than a gift b/c you have to be so careful and don't want to end up making more work for yourself by getting help.

I wrote the post above... please know that my post was in no way about the grammar that people may or may not use, the native language etc. My concern about volunteers is their assumption that they know how to teach kids to read and do math... and often confuse students with mis-information and mis-directions. I think children are lucky to have a diverse population of people in their lives- this is critical and one of the best things about this area. My post was written more from the stand-point that volunteers generally are not open to training or learning HOW to teach students, no matter what their background/history/story. Too many people ASSUME that because they learned how to read, then they know how to teach it. This is not the case and it can be confusing for children.