Reply to Prove me I’m wrong: DC parents are the WORST

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Prove me I’m wrong: DC parents are the WORST"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yep DCPS in Ward 3 parents are interesting. I laugh at our PTA. They raise tons of $$$ for the school - and oops not sure how to spend this money. I mean we are all naive for contributing so it is not only on PTA but pretty laughable they ask for money just to discover they don’t know how to spend it.

Example: PTA wanted to hire teachers; raised $$$ just to realize it wasn’t permissible in DCPS for PTA to pay for teachers salaries.

Sarcasm aside - what is truly sad is to see how little teachers and administration care. Our school has annual community day. Guess how many teachers/ staff show up? Maybe 10 max.

Parents tend to make such a big deal “I love this school” “it’s amazing” etc I mean it is just a school, nothing special guys. Cannot wait for middle and be done with this parental hype.  [/quote]

I have only ever been a parent in DC so I don't know what it's like elsewhere really, but yes the elementary parent culture in DCPS is weird and exhausting.

We are in a Ward 5 Title 1 school, so pretty different demographics, but I still identify with what you are saying. The PTO is a little odd and I feel is too often divorced from what the school is actually doing or wants or needs. I volunteered with the PTO for years when my kids were in early grades but now I have a 3rd and 5th grader and just realized that it doesn't really matter.

It's more useful to volunteer with the class to help with field trips or parties or something -- the teachers always seem really grateful for that and I know sometimes these things would not happen without parent volunteers. Whereas the PTO seems to raise money via events for... more PTO events. Which are not that fun. I'm sorry to say that because I know a lot of work goes into them (and I volunteered for them for years) but it's true. Most of the time the kids would have been more than happy to just play on the playground without any of the extra stuff.

I actually suggested that a couple years -- that we scale back the number of big events and instead just hose regular playdates at the school to promote families getting to know each other, and then just set up a snacks, merch, and donations table at each playdate. A lot of people seemed enthusiastic but the people who run the events were not because to them, running International Night or the Fall Festival or whatever is their whole thing and they don't want to give it up. But those events are expensive to put on so most of the money the PTO raises just goes to putting on those events. And then every year they are desperate for volunteers and begging for donations and you'll go to PTO meetings and get lectured (even though you are one of the 15% of parents at the school who actually attend PTO meetings) about how they need more help.

I finally noped out. Five consecutive years of volunteering for the festivals and the bake sales and table sales and whatever and I just don't feel like it did anything to make my kids' school, education, or community better. It's burdensome and took time away from my family and stressed me out. Why?? Put DC has a lot of parents who just don't see it that way, I'm sure I'm viewed as selfish for not volunteering anymore. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics