Hot Topic: Parent Volunteers | The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Being in school where your children can see you value their education and being a part of it - priceless, right? Maybe not. Parent volunteering is a hot topic of conversation this season as parents bring their roles as school volunteers and how they really feel about them to the forefront.
Writer, mother and school volunteer Soraya Chemaly is unapologetically saying 'no' to school volunteering in this recent, controversial TIME excerpt from her book The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood to Fit Reality, edited by Avital Norman Nathman. Chemaly writes:
School volunteering is part of “good mother” mythologies that reinforce ideas about gender, sexuality, ideal workers and complementary roles for men and women. Additionally, because of our economic and social realities, volunteer demands also contribute to subtle race and class divides in school communities.
Read more from her piece HERE and tell us what you think about Chemaly's point of view over on facebook.
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An Austin-area mother and New York Times contributor, Debra Monroe, has also taken pen to paper to re-tell her experience as a school volunteer and the disheartening conclusion she came to in When Elite Parents Dominate Volunteers, Children Lose. Monroe writes:
A flier came home, asking parents to volunteer because we would be helping all students. I signed up. Parents who worked for an hourly wage and chose between volunteering or earning money were unrepresented. Parents who lived in big, new houses ran the show.
Volunteering meant parties, I discovered. It meant “let them eat chocolate-mousse cake.”
No one actually said that. But one volunteer insisted on chocolate-mousse cake for Valentine’s Day, even as another argued it was too unfamiliar for third-graders. At the celebration, a boy who lived in a rundown house a few miles from me said he had been excited all week about cake. His face fell when he tasted it. “Gunk in the middle,” he said.
While these stories and cases bear some truth certainly, they're not an across-the-board experience everyone can relate to. Still, these types of perspectives help parents and schools continue to evolve and find new and better ways to make a difference for kids in an ever-changing world. Tell us how you help your kid's school - whether it's volunteer, donating or helping from home, leave a comment!
