I've entered a new area of parenthood. Tonight I went to my first PTA meeting at Jack's new school.
I'm a big advocate of public schools. Coming from a family of educators, I know how hard these teachers and administrators work. So I was all excited to attend my first meeting.
After dropping Jack off in the gym to play, I went into the meeting and was shocked to see only a handful of people. The kids brought home notes in their folders and we even got a reminder phone call at home about the meeting. The "officers" of the group (mostly teachers) were there, and then there were probably 4 to 5 just "regular" parents there. The officers were ecstatic that there were so many parents there. Yes, people. There are more than 300 kids at that school, and the PTA was excited to have 5 parents. Yikes! That's sad, isn't it?
Steve tells me this sounded typical to him, but it seems crazy to me. I mean, it's only one meeting every couple of months. And they provide free child care! Seems like a simple commitment to me, but I don't know. I admit I'm a "joiner" type of person. (Unlike my friend Jamie who simply insists that she is not a joiner.)
Anyway, it was a good meeting. I'm already volunteering to cut Box Top lids or something like that. I don't know. I'm kind of crazy about wanting to help out with that stuff. Since I work full-time, I'm extra sensitive about still getting to do stuff with my kids' schools. So a lot of times, I end up being that overachiever mom. Oh well, it gives me something to do.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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3 comments:
Embrace it, you are the overachiever mom ;)
...now I will go back to feeling perennially guilty about not joining my kid's PTA.
Okay, you and I have to talk. I joined the PAC (same type of deal) for Max's school, and had a similar experience. Expect there are some things I'm pretty bitter about, and I'm a meeting or two away from staging a coup.
As the mother-in-law, let me just say that some things never change. Steve and Scott have been out of elementary school for 20 years, but I still recall the lack of parental participation in school events (not just PTA). I was a chaperone for trips several times, and the teachers were always so grateful. And don't get me started on lack of participation with the Scouts!
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