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Reply to "Parent Engagement at Gentrifying Schools - WaPo feature story"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]White PTO president here, and it was an interesting read, although, like another poster said, the article read as a promotional piece for Kindred.

It's really tough because the parents that tend to step up to help are white and/or UMC.  We flier, send text messages, emails, etc., but we rarely get new faces at our meetings or volunteering at our events.  The dad at YY walked into a room, didn't see a lot of faces that looked like his, and walked out. How is that the fault of the PTA leadership? And how would Kindred get him to stay and help?
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Kindly, did you read the article? The point is -- that your methods of engagement are literally premised on facilitating involvement of white people. If you want engagement, you have to change what you're doing.  Sending out emails and fliers then throwing up your hands is not enough.  It is absolutely your fault if you don't make more of an effort. Perhaps you don't care because you just think there's work to be done, and that what you are doing benefits everyone regardless of race.  That's not a completely wrong position. But if you are troubled by lack of engagement and think the beginning and end of your responsibility is to send out an email to the listserve -- then yeah, it is your fault.  [/quote]

You do have to try different things and never give up.  But look, it's hard.  Most of the high-income parents don't engage either.  Some people just don't want to do PTA stuff and they wouldn't even if they had far more money.  A small PTA has a hard time affording the level of food and childcare that would really make it easy for people to attend.  It's a ton of work, people burn out, and it's tiring to be criticized and get little credit for a lot of your efforts.  So hang in there, PP.  [/quote]

Got it - so you don't care about parent engagement.  That's fine, and you're not wrong that you deserve credit for doing the work. But you will have to withstand the (accurate) criticism that you are not doing the work to create a climate of inclusion. [/quote]

Huh?  I said that you do have to try.  You're being really rude.  Some people really just don't want to do PTA and that's okay to acknowledge.  I'm so burnt out I don't even want to do it myself.

Parent engagement is a priority but it isn't the only priority.  And sometimes a PTA with a few accomplishments seems more attractive to people to participate in.[/quote]

+1 I was PTO Pres for two years, on LSAT for three. I’m burned out and don’t do much with regard to PTO anymore and I’m fine with that. And trying to engage families is important but hard and honestly, I grew tired of spending my time courting adults into participating. School is short.  Life is short. [/quote]

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