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The Best, Lowest Paid Job in School
By Gwen Kopetzky
Chauffeuring a vanload of kids to the apple cider plant. Pulling together articles for the school's parents' newsletter. Showing little hands how to string macaroni necklaces. Kissing bruised knees, breaking up playground squabbles and rounding up balls, jump ropes -- and kids -- at the end of recess.
All of these varied tasks fit the definition of parental involvement in my kindergartner's classroom. As the mommy of one of the elementary school's newest recruits, I soon learned it was up to me to find ways to take part in my daughter's schooling by taking on one or more of these glamorous tasks.
A part of me was tempted to just watch from the sidelines as my 6-year-old daughter made her way through school for the next 12 years. That didn't last long. It was over the first time my brand new school-ager came home and said, "So-and-so's mommy came to school today. When are you coming, Mommy?" The heart strings pulled, the guilt flushed my face and the next day I started poring over the parents' newsletter to find volunteer opportunities. The funny part was, even though I wasn't going to get paid a cent, I felt like I was on a job search. My first choice would have been to volunteer in the classroom, but the teachers didn't need that kind of help. Without that option, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.
As I worked through the school's "help wanted" ads in the parents' newsletter, I started developing a list of criteria that helped me sort through the volunteer openings:
- Did I want to spend the time with my daughter and her classmates? If I wanted to be with my daughter, I could volunteer for field trips or playground duty. That way I could watch my child at play with her classmates and get to know the other little people she would come home and rattle on about.
