This year I was the unfortunate soul to draw the short straw and serve as PTA President at my child’s elementary school. I opted to say yes to volunteering, or perhaps “volun-told” I was going to accept the position because there was no one else to take the job.
This comes after just one year at our elementary school as the parent of a Kindergartner. I hadn’t even attended all the events I would be “overseeing” as president, but went in with lofty and optimistic hopes about how the year would go. Luckily, all I ever needed to learn in life, I learned this year in PTA. Well, at least where schools are concerned.
1) There are three kinds of people in the world: Those that will not do, those that can do, and those that MUST do. You will meet them all at the annual PTA training event held each summer. The “will not do” people are the ones laughing at you via cell phone as they sleep in and refuse to volunteer for anything.
The can do’s are the ones (like me) who look like scared deer in the headlights at the “President 101” course being told they’re the one getting sued if anything goes wrong. The “must do’s” are there in pearls and argyle sweaters talking about how they beat Mitzy out for president after a campaign that only cost them $40,000. Sadly, there will very rarely be a must-do at your school.
2) The only law that you really need to know is Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong –– and the best thing you can do is learn to roll with the punches. When your volunteer event coordinator calls to say their great Aunt died and they have to leave on a cruise to her Jamaican funeral the day of an event, all you can do is roll with it.
3) You’re doing it wrong. It doesn’t really matter how you’re doing it –– there’s someone, typically someone who’s not interested in providing any help aside from their esteemed opinion, who could do it better than you. It’s no problem, they’re happy to share their expertise as you deal with the fallout from someone cancelling on you last minute.
4) You don’t really need your tongue. Learning to hold it is good, but in extreme cases, you’ll learn to bite it. You’ll be a better person for it, and taste is, in many cases, over rated.
5) Believe it or not, you don’t get to spend all that PTA Fundraiser money on spa vacations, but people will think you do. If I had one person ask me “where is all that money you keep making going” I had 100. The answer is: “back to your children”.
6) The ends justify the means. Despite all the negative feedback, emergency phone calls, and hard work, being a part of your child’s education in such a large way is tremendously rewarding. For every parent that moans about a line at Bingo Night you’ll have a child beaming at you Monday because they won a prize. For every parent that screams about a deadline they missed, you’ll have a classroom of children with new educational software. For every missed hour of sleep finishing something that has to get done tomorrow, your child’s school will have a new library book. And, in an era of reduced budgets, layoffs, and cuts to discretionary education spending, that knowledge makes it all worthwhile.
Children with involved parents get better test scores, are more likely to graduate from high school and pursue higher education, and get better grades than their peers whose parents aren’t involved. I’m not saying you have to draw the short straw or anything, but I do know that whatever time you are able to make, even if it’s frustrating, does not return void. Here’s to the people taking the time to make a difference in our schools as volunteers- your sacrifices make an impact.
In addition to being a busy Prince William County mom, Kristina Schnack Kotlus somehow finds time to report on schools and education in Virginia’s Potomac Communities.
