I went into this story prepared to make fun of the hyper involved parent I know. The ones who take on so much responsibility at school they don't have time for anything but school related activities. I was going to snarkily imply that sometimes it seems like the Uber Volunteers at school seem to be filling the void left when they're not in charge of child care for 24 hours a day anymore.
Then I read about these volunteers, like Chester Tuella who serves on local, county and national PTA posts even though his children are grown. Then I thought about the Science Alive assembly my kids couldn't stop talking about or the Hands On Museum presentation they raved about and how my PTA set that up and I felt a little guilty.
PTA membership is dwindling nationally, membership has hovered around 6 million for the past five years, from a peak of about 11 million in the 1950s. The PTA can't seem to drop it's image as a group of bake sale throwing mothers and with so many working parents, the opportunities for volunteering is scarce. In my circle, the PTA can't drop the stereotypical behavior of bored housewives with too much time on their hands. True story: An aquaintance told me a mother had called to volunteer for a book fair, but the other mothers didn't like her so they lied and told her the job was already taken.
The dwindling numbers are unfortunate because the group does great work to help schools offer extras lean school budgets can't provide. PTAs bring special programs to the school, like science assemblies and character building programs. PTAs also help organize fundraisers which help defray the cost of field trips and extracurricular programs.
Maybe I'll get involved.....next year when we're at a new school.
