I’ve spent a lot of the past few years trying to figure out what is most important to me. If I had more time, or more money (or gasp! more of both!) how and where would I want to invest? What do I most value?
Community is definitely at the top of my list. If I had more time, and more money, I would invest in my community. I want to feel connected to where I live. I want to know people who live near me. I want to be proud of where I live, and at home in my neighborhood.
I recognized pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to have the time or money to give back to my entire neighborhood in the ways I wanted. So I took that energy and that desire to feel connected and directed it at my daughter’s school.
I started becoming more involved at the end of the last school year. It was my commitment to community that pushed me to accept the request to run for PTA vice-president. And it’s that same desire to feel connected that makes me happy I took on that role.
This year I really do feel more connected to the school. I know not only the names of most of the people who work there, but feel comfortable chatting with them on the blacktop before school. I consider my fellow PTA officers friends, people I could actually count on if I needed someone to pick my daughter up from aftercare if I were running late. I know what is going on, what special events to expect, who to talk to if there is a problem. After only two months I feel more connected to the school than I ever felt last year.
I also feel better about the school in general. When you know the people who work there (both the administration and the teachers) and know what they are trying to accomplish, you see everything, even the challenges, in a more positive light.
Of course, investing of myself in my daughter’s school affects her positively. I understand that some people consider this kind of involvement a conscientious parental act. I can’t argue with that. But I like to think I’m spending so much time and energy at my daughter’s school not just for her, but for all the students there, especially the ones whose parents don’t have as much opportunity to show up.
{And honestly, I don’t have the time or bandwidth to volunteer in a capacity that doesn’t bring me closer to my kids right now. I’m lucky there is something I can manage that lets me help my kids, and my community, at the same time.}
Yesterday I called in for a sub and went on my daughter’s field trip. I wasn’t planning on going, but I had told the teacher that if he ever needed chaperones I could probably make it work. It turns out he did need chaperones, so on Friday I promised him I would be there.
And yes, my daughter was delighted for me to come. While I volunteered in her class a few times last year, I never took a day off to attend a field trip. They always had plenty of chaperones, so I never volunteered. My daughter noticed this and has mentioned it on occasion. So when the teacher said he may have to cancel the trip because he didn’t have enough parents going, I said yes in part for my daughter. But I also said yes for all the other kids in the class, because I wanted all of them to have a chance to visit the science center.
I’ve heard people say it doesn’t count as service if people we love benefit, and maybe that’s the case. I suppose it’s part of why I sent my child to a “social justice school,” so that my service for her could also be for other kids who need it more than she does.
Either way, I felt good going on the field trip today. I won’t say it was fun, because I got a hard group (I’m sure on purpose because he knows I’m also a teacher), and it was a lot of work to keep them safe on two public buses (each way!) and in the science center. And I don’t relish spending a morning I took off doing all the classroom busy work that I actively avoid at my own school (I stayed in the morning to help the teacher around the classroom). But it felt good to participate in my daughter’s education, support her (over worked and underpaid) teacher, and ensure that her class could go on the field trip.
Yes, being on the PTA and being an active, supportive classroom parent is a lot of work. But I think I chose well when I took on this focus for my dedication to community. My daughter’s school–our neighborhood school–is definitely a worthy endeavor.
