Why are you not active in your elementary school's parent organization?

[Anonymous]

I'm not active because school already claims so much of my life. They can't have any more of it. I am glad that my child gets to attend this school, but getting her there via public transportation is roughly equivalent to a part time job, and that's not counting the prep, homework time, and wind-down to get her ready to do it all over again the next day.

I know that everyone is busy and I have no idea how the PTA volunteers at our school do it. They are just as busy as I am, I know it. But it seems to invigorate them to be involved as much as it paralyzes me to think that I need to add more "school involvement" to this already endless grind of school days. The time I tried to do my part and contribute something to the bake sale, they ended up selling the items for about a quarter of what the ingredients cost - lesson learned, write a check instead.

Maybe when my child is older and more independently mobile I won't feel like school already owns every waking minute of my day and will finally feel ready to be more active.

[Anonymous]

Here is my problem with parents who refuse to be engaged. Do not come to our school and take full advantage of the resources provided that have been provided by the hard work of the pta. Pay it forward and/or replenish what you have absorbed. I am sure I will get flack for this but this is one of the biggest issue with OOB parents. They feel no connection to the community nor the school, so its just a loss for the school.

[Anonymous]

Easy: The mean mom who runs it, and the other mean mom. They're horrible. They plan things that end up being disasters, then blame the non-participation of everybody else. They do zero outreach and attack anyone who may offer another approach.

Shockingly mean. Like, Reality TV mean.

[Anonymous]

I was the PTA Treasurer and then was drafted to be the President. I did my best and it was exhausting (you can hardly imagine the silly things people will email you about, and expect you to fix - as though a PTA President has any kind of actual authority). I served. Now I am done serving. Why am I no longer active? Because I'm afraid I'll get drafted to serve again. I'm staying below the radar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An inordinate amount of PTA time is spent on planning, staffing, and follow up from fundraisers. I say just give me a $ amount at the beginning of the year and I'm happy to write a check for the year.

+10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A NPR story on the radio featuring this article:

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2014/12/16/54797/pasadena-schools-experiment-with-charlas-to-help-students-by-coaching-their-parents/

"“We found that most forms of parental involvement yield no benefit to children’s test scores or grades regardless of their racial or ethnic background or socioeconomic status.”
Robinson found traditional activities like attending PTA meetings didn’t help.
But he said a few things can make a difference.
“The list of what consistently works is pretty short. That would be expecting your child to go to college, regularly discussing activities that your child engages in at school and requesting a particular teacher for your child,” he said."

This is not surprising. Our school has a PTA funded program that doesn't appear to be audited or measured for performance in any way. Everyone loves to talk about our unique "XXXX" program but nobody can answer basics questions about how the program is measured for effectiveness and impact or why the PTA continues to fund it year after year. So we will keep paying $00 because everybody thinks the program is so great and some of us are wondering why we don't consider other programs.

I think you and other posters are confused about the study cited in the NPR study.

There are two different propositions here:

1) the attendance of low-income parents at PTA meetings does not improve the test scores of the children of those parents. Other involvements are more effective for engaging these parents, for example the "charlas" discussed in the article.

2) PTA-funded programming is ineffective at raising the test scores of children or meaningfully contribuing to their education.

The study established (1). It didn't say anything about (2), and we know that (2) is false because for example, PTAs can fund these types of charlas and also tutoring, enrichment, classroom aides, and many things that help students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An inordinate amount of PTA time is spent on planning, staffing, and follow up from fundraisers. I say just give me a $ amount at the beginning of the year and I'm happy to write a check for the year.

+10000

+ a million...assuming you actually cut the check.

Some folks prefer to be free-raiders, investing no time or money in their kids' school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An inordinate amount of PTA time is spent on planning, staffing, and follow up from fundraisers. I say just give me a $ amount at the beginning of the year and I'm happy to write a check for the year.

+10000

+ a million...assuming you actually cut the check.

Some folks prefer to be free-raiders, investing no time or money in their kids' school.

Amen, sometimes I wish parents were interviewed prior to enrolling their child into school so they can have an understanding of the support needed. Write a check or get involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An inordinate amount of PTA time is spent on planning, staffing, and follow up from fundraisers. I say just give me a $ amount at the beginning of the year and I'm happy to write a check for the year.

+10000

+ a million...assuming you actually cut the check.

Some folks prefer to be free-raiders, investing no time or money in their kids' school.

Amen, sometimes I wish parents were interviewed prior to enrolling their child into school so they can have an understanding of the support needed. Write a check or get involved.

This is such a DC fear. Someone, somewhere is getting away with something and we have to stop them.

[Anonymous]

"Here is my problem with parents who refuse to be engaged. Do not come to our school and take full advantage of the resources provided that have been provided by the hard work of the pta. Pay it forward and/or replenish what you have absorbed. I am sure I will get flack for this but this is one of the biggest issue with OOB parents. They feel no connection to the community nor the school, so its just a loss for the school."
And what resources does the PTA provide outside of the bullshit fundraising for teacher gifts, unnecessary and time consuming parties and busy work that people with too much time on their hands feel the need to make?

I do not give a penny of my money or time to the PTA. It drives inequality in our eduction system. Maryland spends more that 6 billion annually on K-12 eduction and I see how much I "give" with every real estate tax payment I make. If there is a lack of resources, it is not due to lack of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Here is my problem with parents who refuse to be engaged. Do not come to our school and take full advantage of the resources provided that have been provided by the hard work of the pta. Pay it forward and/or replenish what you have absorbed. I am sure I will get flack for this but this is one of the biggest issue with OOB parents. They feel no connection to the community nor the school, so its just a loss for the school."
And what resources does the PTA provide outside of the bullshit fundraising for teacher gifts, unnecessary and time consuming parties and busy work that people with too much time on their hands feel the need to make?

I do not give a penny of my money or time to the PTA. It drives inequality in our eduction system. Maryland spends more that 6 billion annually on K-12 eduction and I see how much I "give" with every real estate tax payment I make. If there is a lack of resources, it is not due to lack of money.

Move to Maryland then. Here in DC we work with what we have and it starts with parents!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An inordinate amount of PTA time is spent on planning, staffing, and follow up from fundraisers. I say just give me a $ amount at the beginning of the year and I'm happy to write a check for the year.

+10000

+ a million...assuming you actually cut the check.

Some folks prefer to be free-raiders, investing no time or money in their kids' school.

Isn't PTAs simply another means of redistributing the wealth from rich families to poor families? Rather than cut a check for socialism, spend the money on private lessons and enrichment for your own child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not active because school already claims so much of my life. They can't have any more of it. I am glad that my child gets to attend this school, but getting her there via public transportation is roughly equivalent to a part time job, and that's not counting the prep, homework time, and wind-down to get her ready to do it all over again the next day.

I know that everyone is busy and I have no idea how the PTA volunteers at our school do it. They are just as busy as I am, I know it. But it seems to invigorate them to be involved as much as it paralyzes me to think that I need to add more "school involvement" to this already endless grind of school days. The time I tried to do my part and contribute something to the bake sale, they ended up selling the items for about a quarter of what the ingredients cost - lesson learned, write a check instead.

Maybe when my child is older and more independently mobile I won't feel like school already owns every waking minute of my day and will finally feel ready to be more active.

Exactly. A cost benefit analysis. And really, between back to school nights, volunteering to bring food to events, reading to the class, supervising little ones' homework. So much time is already invested.

[Anonymous]

Mine met yesterday night, I grabbed dinner with a friend after work and then headed home for one final conference call. Tonight I leave work and go straight to a volunteer commitment. Wed, I have a night conference call for a volunteer gig. Thursday night, I'll take my daughter with me to another volunteer meeting (and she'll hate it). And, Friday we are doing pizza and swimming. So, yeah, I'm a little busy, and if someone who was already on the PTO reached out and really encouraged me to be there, I might bump it up on my list, but no one has so far-and I'm relieved.

[Anonymous]

Just time. I have the utmost respect for those who do it, but I mostly just can't figure out where to fit it. I make the effort to introduce myself to the more active parents (some of whom are also part of 2-working parent households). I'll write a check and show up to a couple of events during the year. (I offered to help with the school garden this year but haven't heard back.) But I lack the time energy or talent to be an involved organizer type. Most of my day is scheduled in 10 minute increments, I get about 3 hours of straight family time at the end of the workday, and 5 hours of sleep at night. Weekends are a little looser, but I like to keep them that way to keep myself sane.