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Originally Posted by WarEagle07
I believe that there are 2 things that encourage this. One is a lack of government funding for proper staff and supplies. The parents are invited in to help because with 30+ kids in an elementary class a teacher and an aid alone cannot provide one on one attention.
Two, studies show that children of parents who are involved in school do better in school than those who don't have involved parents. Plus, the mega-involved parents do have a way of making you feel like an inferior parent if you don't...it's like adult peer pressure.  |
I don't know. I'm in a well-funded district with low class counts. There'd be no reason really that anyone needed to be there from the school's perspective; the teachers and staff have got it. But the schools do have volunteers and most of the PTO efforts are outstandingly good rather than meddlesome and helicoptering. But it's because, I think, the schools and some great normal parents had to learn to channel the over-involved parents' efforts.
I agree about the peer pressure though. A couple of helies can influence the perception of what's normal pretty easily, and if would be normal parents start to think it's what they need to do. . .
I think the test in school volunteering is two fold: one, is the parent sincerely interested in helping all students and teachers or is it an expectation of quid pro quo or influence seeking AND does the parent seek to meddle or overstep his or her authority while "helping out"?
If you have an altruistic desire to make your child's school a better place, more power to you, but if you are just trying to worm your way into getting what you want for your kid, even at the expense of others, not so much.