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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m thankful for kids’ sports coaches if they are volunteer, or the parent that volunteers to run an after school math club, or chess club, or be the Science Olympiad leader/coach.

I’m not thankful for the “room parents” that keep distracting education with too many dumb class parties or the parties that do school carnival or whatever.  I don’t need other parents to “make things fun” at school.  School is for education and schools are doing a pretty bad job at it- and it isn’t because of lack of parent volunteers to throwing parties or lack of snacks in the teachers’ break room[/quote]

So kids would be smarter and learn more if school was more unpleasant?[/quote]

It is unhelpful. Schools is perfectly pleasant without parents fighting and clawing to get the sign up sheet first for these extras. It’s unnecessary and judging my the sheer number of posts about parents complaining about not being able “get a spot” on the sign up, it isn’t about actually helping.  It’s about it being seen, feeling important, gaining affection from your kid (and maybe other peoples) and getting insider info about which teachers to request, which kids to say you don’t want yours in class with, etc.  We all know how it is. [/quote]

Okay, well, you are crazy.

But also most parent volunteering isn’t this kind of thing. It’s behind the scenes, off hours.

If there are not enough spots for parents to come to the St Patrick’s Day party or whatever they should just make more spots. [/quote]
Exactly. I wonder which school this person’s kids attend. At our school, with a healthy volunteer population, no parents have ever fought or clawed to get seen. Teachers and admin are also very careful to never share info and there is absolutely no preferential treatment given to kids whose parents volunteer. Other than class parties or field trips, most volunteers are behind the scenes or picking up things to take care of at home.
[/quote]

I’m at an elementary school and know of a mom with a similar type complaint. Maybe the thread or the pp is that parent.

At our school, there are a lot of volunteer opportunities. It can be setting up community events, shelving library books, running one of the many clubs or teams. One role is room parent. Parents can sign up to be a room parent. Anyone can sign up. By second grade, there are very few parents who are room parents. The room parent executes what the teachers want done for the various parties throughout the year.

At our school, the teachers want only 3-5 volunteers per party. If there are 2-3 room parents, then there is only 1-2 slots left and OP or PP may get upset if she didn’t get the spot and it may seem like we are trying to hoard all the spots.

One year, they allowed a lot of parents. The kids and/or cafeteria was delayed so parents had to wait. Most parents just chatted with one another. I clearly remember one mom huffing and puffing because she had more important stuff to do. Some of these moms don’t like given a task either when they do come. At one party, I gave a mom a stack of items to hand out and she looked at me like I was nuts. It is fine if you don’t want to hand out bingo cards or help a kid with a glue gun. Just don’t come.[/quote]

Those parents only come because their kids will later ask why they weren’t there. That’s why these parents want this to go away, they can’t handle the consequences of not being there. I could attend more of these than I do, but I don’t really want to and I tell my kids maybe next time. And then everyone forgets about it. It’s always awkward just standing around waiting for someone to hand you napkins. Normally 1-2 people run the show and everyone else just watches.[/quote]

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