Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in a very long time-I volunteered in an actual public school classroom during the school day. I make this distinction because as I was thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve done that, I made some interesting observations. In our Florida elementary school I volunteered in the classrooms of both my boys multiple times during the school year and I had sons there for eight years. I also did lots of volunteering for school events and PTA programs, including serving as PTA president for two years. But I always volunteered in their classrooms and was given lots of tasks to do. Mark was in middle school there for one year and I volunteered at PTA events at that school, but not in a classroom.
When we moved to Utah, I don’t recall ever volunteering in an actual classroom, although I asked repeatedly for opportunities, especially the two years Brian was finishing up elementary school. During the remainder of their school years I volunteered for many school events, PTA events, and did lots of volunteer work for the choir, orchestra, and drama teachers, but not in the classrooms. I also became more involved in PTA on a council, district, and then state level, until after the boys were done with public school my volunteer time consisted mainly of advocating at the Legislature and serving on statewide committees and Boards of Directors. All of which are far removed from an individual public school classroom. I loved the time I spent doing that important work and I know that some of my efforts have made a real difference in the lives of children throughout the state. But there was something profoundly satisfying in helping in a small way to lighten the burden of one teacher in one classroom and thus affect the education of a handful of students.
There were also some interesting Circle of Life musings as I walked in the door yesterday. I volunteered at the same junior high Mark attended eleven years ago. We moved here a week before school started, he only knew a couple of boys he’d met once at church, and he got on the bus that first day so bravely to begin the terrors of junior high. Seems like yesterday.
