Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leave it to the professionals. I want my children taught by professionals.

I was certified to teach 7-12, but I enjoyed working with elementary kids as a volunteer. In fact, I enjoyed it enough that I am looking into elementary certification in the future.

Is that professional enough, or should we not allow full time moms with an education background in the classroom to help out?

If they interviewed and selected based on skill I would be fine with it.

Anonymous wrote:Leave it to the professionals. I want my children taught by professionals.

I was certified to teach 7-12, but I enjoyed working with elementary kids as a volunteer. In fact, I enjoyed it enough that I am looking into elementary certification in the future.

Is that professional enough, or should we not allow full time moms with an education background in the classroom to help out?

Anonymous wrote:I think you'd be surprised who actually gossips and who doesn't. They may not be gossiping about academics, but I see it all the time with parents gossiping about behavior in the classroom and typically it's from the teacher's pet mom.

Who cares if they gossip though? I am very grateful to the room moms. I work full time and don't have the time to volunteer. Even if I have all the time in the world, I know I won't have the patience to deal with the kids, the parents, and the teachers.

I gossip at work about clients and bosses too. Who cares?

Leave it to the professionals. I want my children taught by professionals.

Anonymous wrote:Is this a regional thing? We live in Southern VA and the class teachers always send requests after requests for volunteers. The room moms are always very nice.

It's not regional. I live in SF and in some grades, my DD's teachers have loved having a parent come in to teach something specific, but as I said before DD's 1st grade teacher didn't want that. My friend lives in Pacifica and she volunteers at the school basically every day.

I think you'd be surprised who actually gossips and who doesn't. They may not be gossiping about academics, but I see it all the time with parents gossiping about behavior in the classroom and typically it's from the teacher's pet mom.

Classroom teacher here: I've had wonderful parent volunteers and awful parent volunteers. Some I can count on to do copying and give spelling tests with minimal direction. They know how to talk to the kids and can be trusted not to gossip. And then there are those that don't show up when they say they will, don't know how to interact with kids (including their own) and seem to be there just to "be in the know" about things that are none of their business. I limit those parents to things like copying and field trips.

Is this a regional thing? We live in Southern VA and the class teachers always send requests after requests for volunteers. The room moms are always very nice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents volunteering in order to gossip about kids is a total fabrication.

Parents may not volunteer with the goal of assessing the other kids and gossiping, but they most certainly gossip about what they see. I've heard it first hand.

+1000

The New Adventures of Old Christine

Anonymous wrote:I think parents volunteering in order to gossip about kids is a total fabrication.

Parents may not volunteer with the goal of assessing the other kids and gossiping, but they most certainly gossip about what they see. I've heard it first hand.

It's very hard to get a parent disallowed from working in the classroom. This was done once in our school when the mom grabbed a boy by his arm and shook him.

I was also volunteering once and we did not enough of something for a project and the other mom volunteer said to a boy, if your mom volunteered you would have gotten the supplies but she did not so too bad. I gave him and a few other kids different supplies for a different project.

Hormonal women + other people's kids = trouble

Yes, but no one steps up this year as room parent.

The school does. I know DD's first grade teacher didn't want parents in the room.

I think parents volunteering in order to gossip about kids is a total fabrication.

I understand both sides. Classes are too big and the more adults we have helping our kids learn the better. I also know there are always the bad seeds who help out to gather gossip or for other nefarious reasons. The thing is, it's free labor and our kids need it IMO. Can't they just boot the volunteers who abuse the system and let the rest of us make sure every kid is getting enough attention?