<p>Wow, this thread took an unexpected turn.</p>
<p>I think the real answer is - if you have a desire to contribute, go ahead and contact the college and see if there is an opportunity. Most - as do I - think it’s about helping others not intruding on my S.</p>
<p>I think that was the simple answer to the question. I was just curious how people were involved. I think hosting an admissions event would be great - it’s not even on the campus grounds.</p>
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<p>I agree it’s important for parents to be involved in their children’s <em>education</em>. I’m not sure that is always linked to involvement in the <em>school system.</em> I had plenty of fun coordinating room parties, volunteering at fun fairs and the like when my kids were in elementary school, but I’m not really sure it did much for their <em>education</em> other than indicate that we thought school was an important area to focus. I think things like taking my kids to museums and ensuring they had books / resources for extracurriculars of interest did more to further their education than actual involvement in the school. </p>
<p>I mean, we all know the PTA president whose kid isn’t all that bright, LOL. Seriously - is the kid helped more by the mother becoming the PTA president, or by the mother working with the kid behind the scenes to increase his educational fitness? Rhetorical question only, of course.</p>
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<p>And the point I’m trying to make to your original point is … let’s take my D, an incoming freshman. (My S is in a little different circumstance, because he is attending my / H’s alma mater.)</p>
<p>Let’s say a year from now, when she has some experience under her belt, W’s alumnae club in our city wished to ask current students to open their homes to new or prospective students, I would certainly be happy to offer my home. And if they wanted parents of students to be able to welcome parents of incoming students, sure, I’d be more than happy to be a resource. </p>
<p>But it would be through my D, not through me. Because between the 40-something who attended Wellesley back in the day, and the 40-something me sending my daughter there, I don’t think it’s my place or “right” to be the host. I’m still one-step-removed from the community. It would be for <em>them</em> (the alumnae) and / or my D (the current student) to be the hosts or coordinators of such events.</p>
<p>Well PG then I recommend you not host one of those events, but I think KingJulian if you want to since you are obviously interested, the alumnae club is your best route. They can direct you to the alum admissions coordinator, and then if they need help they’ll be in touch (I’m sure in these tight economic times, they would welcome a free home to host an event in rather than renting a space). </p>
<p>Also, PG, you might consider that being a volunteer parent chaperone allows schools to do field trips to museums and other locations which then contribute to the experiences of all the children. Volunteering at the school to tutor or offer assistance to the guidance counselor or the library increases the educational opportunities for all the students and enhances their learning. Freeing up the time of teachers and other staff by volunteering to do administrative tasks allows that staff to spend more time educating the students. Just because the volunteer activities you undertook at the school were more of a fluff nature doesn’t mean that volunteering from parents, even through the PTA, inherently does not advance the educational fitness of their child and other children.</p>
<p>When I mentioned that kids and parents benefit from the parental involvement in K-12, I was NOT just talking of my own kids benefitting if I volunteer as a parent. I meant that all the kids in the school benefit by having more adults in the school helping. This is not instead of my enriching my own kids’ education outside the classroom. I did that too, when school was over. But the kids at the school benefitted with more adults in the building helping in all sorts of ways which provided more for everyone beyond what the staff could do alone. If a parent comes into the classroom to do one on one reading, it means more kids get individualized attention on reading. Same with writing conferences. If a parent can run a small group, it allows the teacher to run another small group. If a parent is shelving books, it allows the librarian to help kids with finding resources for their project or for helping a classroom teacher locate resources for her new unit. I wasn’t there really for my own kid, though of course my own kids benefitted from having mom be involved in the classroom and knowing the workings of it and what not. But my assistance was to help all kids. None of this replaces furthering my own kids’ education outside of class time. This was an additional involvement and mostly for the benefit of all the kids, not my own kids.</p>
<p>However, I can think of one volunteer involvement at school that benefitted a lot of kids but also my own kid. I started offering to put on a musical production after school for grades 1-4. They had professional staff offering musicals for grades 4-6. Many kids were enriched by this, but my own kid, who was very into musical theater (and in fact, that is now her career) got to do musicals at school due to my running it. It was successful and so the school ended up after a few years, hiring professional staff to offer a musical for lower grades. </p>
<p>Our elem school has a slew of parent volunteers and they are not in it purely to benefit their own children but to help the school and the many students in it, some of whom have parents who are unable to volunteer.</p>
<p>PG, I understand your point. </p>
<p>Let’s ask it this way, if you knew there was a need that you could fulfill (time and effort), would you still feel that you should “disqualify” (lack of a better word) yourself from being involved?</p>
<p>That question is not meant to be offensive.</p>
<p>Well put, soozie. School volunteers benefit the whole community by creating better schools.</p>
<p>Our S is at H & my alma mater. We used to be involved with the college as alumni, we did alumni interviewing. But we stopped doing that about 10 years ago (just didn’t have the time). The college asks for parents to be on committees to help plan Family Weekend, to fundraise, etc, but we have not done any of that. We did volunteer to be available via e-mail or phone to answer questions from parents of accepted students. We live almost 300 miles from the college so that limits us. Frankly, we try to keep our alumni involvement separate from our role as parents. </p>
<p>Our daughter’s college is 800 miles away. We haven’t done anything there because of the distance.</p>
<p>For both kids’ colleges I have a weekly Google Alert for news, and I generally read the online newspapers and look at their websites occasionally. I like to know what’s going on on campus, and then ask my kids about it. We also try to attend Family Weekends at both colleges.</p>
<p>Our S is at H & my alma mater. We used to be involved with the college as alumni, we did alumni interviewing. But we stopped doing that about 10 years ago (just didn’t have the time). The college asks for parents to be on committees to help plan Family Weekend, to fundraise, etc, but we have not done any of that. We did volunteer to be available via e-mail or phone to answer questions from parents of accepted students. We live almost 300 miles from the college so that limits us. Frankly, we try to keep our alumni involvement separate from our role as parents. </p>
<p>Our daughter’s college is 800 miles away. We haven’t done anything there because of the distance.</p>
<p>For both kids’ colleges I have a weekly Google Alert for news, and I generally read the online newspapers and look at their websites occasionally. I like to know what’s going on on campus, and then ask my kids about it. We also try to attend Family Weekends at both colleges.</p>
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<p>If they reached out to me and said “we are interested in parents of current students doing X,” yes, I’d be fine with that. I wouldn’t proactively reach out and say, “Hey, I’m a parent of a current student, would you like me to do something?” though. Because <em>to me</em> that feels different. YMMV.</p>
<p>I didn’t say volunteering at elem schools wasn’t useful or of benefit, esp the kinds of things that soozievt mentions (putting on musicals, having a parent with special talent in X contribute, etc.). I think schools can get away with not funding stuff, however, by assuming there will be parent volunteers to pick up the slack, and THAT, I think is the shame.</p>
<p>My parents weren’t particularly involved, although they do have some “wear” from my undergrad school. They did visit fairly frequently (3-ish times a semester)–I was about a day’s drive away and in a beautiful location, great for fishing/hiking/skiing, so that helped. They didn’t, IIRC, meet any of my professors, although they did know my boss pretty well, as they often picked me up straight from work when they visited or came to pick me up for breaks. Oh, and they paid the bills, of course. 
:)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, what I’m saying is that schools may not be able to fund extra help in the schools and due to that, volunteers step up to the plate. If the volunteers stopped, I doubt public schools would all of a sudden add lots of aides, etc. in the schools. Currently, they are making cuts, not adding.</p>
<p>Just FYI, I volunteered my time for ONE event at our high school until last year (my last kid graduated from college this year). It was an event that I particularly enjoyed and also that I had organized for 10 years. I really enjoyed working with the parents who eventually took my place doing it this year. I also have been on several advisory committees at both the elementary and secondary schools after my kids left the system. I agree with someone upstream…the local schools where you have given your time…and where you also have a lot of knowledge to share…can still use your help. And it’s fun seeing the subsequent classes of students come through.</p>
<p>other than being a listening-ear and helping with some administrative tasks, i haven’t and won’t be ‘involved’ with my freshman son’s college experience. this is not to say that he has been entirely left on his own to sink or swim. i think they (burgeoning young adults) need to see that we are fulfilled in our own lives, apart from the joy we receive from being their parents–especially if we were involved during K-whatever. that separation helps them adjust.</p>
<p>Also, let’s be clear that “schools” don’t set their own funding. It’s funded by the state, and in some states less equitably than others. Schools don’t use volunteers as an excuse to not fund things, they turn to volunteers because they have no other choice. State funding, which is continually being cut, does not cover all of the costs of educating public school children in an adequate fashion for every school. Schools therefore rely on volunteers to help them make up the gap, either by giving time or organizing fundraisers to give money. </p>
<p>It’s not in the school’s interest to not fund or underfund things so as to purposefully make up the difference with volunteers. Schools that don’t use all their funding get their funding cut, so they have to make do with less the next year. Thus most schools try to spend absolute every dollar and then some, in hopes that their budget will either then expand or at minimum stay the same for the coming year. And I’ve never been inside a public school that did not need to spend every single dollar just to keep up what level of educational services they can, whcih may have been minimal to start with. </p>
<p>In some states, school funding is determined by property taxes in that district. So schools in wealthy areas receive disproportionately more funding than schools in poorer areas. Unfortunately, schools in poorer areas are also often the schools that lack parent volunteers (more likely have households with single parents, with both parents working, or with one or more parent working multiple jobs, thus less time to volunteer) so they get hit twice. Schools with parent volunteers are incredibly lucky because they are able to weather state budget cuts much more easily.</p>
<p>One of my main volunteer activities at my kids’ elementary schools was being involved with Reading is Fundamental. This is a wonderful program (in danger of succumbing to congressional budget cuts please call your congressman!) that acts basically as a free book fair. Every child in our school got at least four books a year of their choice. In addition we organized various activities to encourage an interest in books - putting together a flyer of summer reading suggestions with reviews by the kids, voting for favorite authors, inviting local illustrators to talk about their work with the kids etc. My kids didn’t need more books, but I did it for the community.</p>
<p>I haven’t even filled out the long questionnaire for my younger son’s college that came from the Parent’s Association. It looked like an excuse for them to bother me. I am happy to read my son’s papers because, at least the ones about nuclear disarmament, have been really interesting and he needs someone to catch the typos. When he started asking question about what citations were needed I told him to go to the university Writing Lab.</p>
<p>“There are many stay at home parents or parents who work part time and are choosing to support the local school and students by lending a helping hand” - At our school many elementary school parents who worked full time but had flexible schedule did too. (I did so monthly - it was a great way to help and also see the dynamics of the class). </p>
<p>When the kids got to middle school, there was little need for parent helpers. I was ok with that, but I know many parents were disappointed. A few of them did find meaninful volunteer opportunities, but they had to dig for them. HS had a few opportunities (stapling newsletters etc) - I went once but it was so overcrowded I did not return. </p>
<p>Many students from our HS go to the local university. The only parent participation I’ve heard about is hosting international students during holiday/breaks - sounds neat.</p>