Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Parent Volunteer Vortex - NYTimes.com

The Parent Volunteer Vortex - NYTimes.com

The Parent Volunteer Vortex

Holly Sklar had her twins when she was 40, and she writes about her life on a blog she calls Late Blooming Mom. This week the twins began kindergarten, and Sklar wrote of falling down the rabbit hole that she calls the “school-volunteer vortex” — a place where parents seem to be expected to spend as much time in the classroom as the students.

On the one hand, who can argue with the extras that parent involvement provides — particularly in an era of budget cuts. On the other hand, at what point does this stop being about the children and start being yet another point of competition and guilt for the parents?

Sklar is fairly sure her school has crossed the line.

She writes:

There are 43 committees at my kids’ school’s parent