re: #45 Sionainn

On a side note, I never had a single parent volunteer (except for a couple of chaperones if we were fortunate enough to have a field trip) and it wasn’t just my classroom having that problem, it was schoolwide, but in my daughter’s kindergarten class in a more affluent area, there were tons of parents volunteering. I wouldn’t mind seeing some sort of huge ad campaign reaching out to parents, describing what they specifically can do to help their child succeed in school. I think a lot of the parents just don’t know how to help. We can teach the parents, too.

Quite a bit of this is a side effect of class issues. If you work 9-5 (or an approximation thereof) then you can be at home when your kid is doing their school work. It’s also much easier to make time to volunteer at your kids school if you a)have actual vacation time you can spend b) have enough control over your schedule that you can commit several weeks in advance and c)have another person who can deal with any other kids while you are volunteering.

It’s much easier to stay involved your your child education when you aren’t a single parent working a service sector schedule with no vacation time.