PTSA Meetings

[elfs]

Last night I went to the PTSA meeting at Yamaarashi-chan's elementary school. I found a school that was terribly underfunded, a PTSA staff that cannot spell, and and school district that was too worried about reaching down to those students who aren't achieving that it does not have (and admits it does not have) the time, resources or interest in boosting those students who are exceeding expectations.

For all that, I found the volunteers there to be reasonable, open-minded people who are working hard to provide the best for all of the children in the school system and who do have their act together.

Yes, the president of the PTSA doesn't understand that "et. al." isn't spelled "et all" (and Strunk & White tells us to "always abbreviate" that phrase), and the treasurer notes "discressionary" spending, but they really do have a working pattern of fund raising and plans to put together a total annual income of nearly $70,000 throughout the school year. I was pleasantly surprised with the effective quality of their work.

The school is hip-deep into the box tops and soup labels programs that General Mills, Kraft, Campbell's, and other corporations run in the hopes of generating brand name penetration and consumer loyalty. But Omaha and I simply don't buy any of the brands with the boxtops they want: we don't eat much General Mills cereals, and we make our own soups most of the time. I felt a moment of guilt at not being part of the herd until I realized that that's what those corporations want me to feel. I will not be fnorded into buying crap.

I noticed that part of the budget contains a faint whiff of social promotion: The school buys the most popular children's books in audiobook format as well as on paper, so those students who can't read won't feel left out because they haven't had a chance to get the story.

(As a side note, the page on the web where I found the "et. al." reference is from a public high school which has its own quality control problems: one glossary entry reads "see parenthetical reference". There is no such entry: there is one labeled "parenthetical citation".)

Comments

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Don't feel guilty about choosing not to participate in the brand penetration schemes within your own household. You might ask your colleagues to give you their labels, tabs, boxtops, etc., however; many people do this.

We won't be able to help you by supplying the necessary, because we don't do brand penetration either. Since I make essentially everything from scratch, our household recycling is not a good source of these items.

[(Anonymous)]

Just to be pedantic, it should be abbreviated "et al.", not "et. al."

It's short for "et alii," "et aliae," or "et alia" (depending on gender).

Jeremy

[elfs.livejournal.com]

You're correct, thus continuing a long standing Usenet tradition: every spelling flame must contain at least one spelling error, etc.

Lock?

[(Anonymous)]

Don't you usually lock entries about the children?

Re: Lock?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

This wasn't about the children. It was about the school system.

[mo-hair.livejournal.com]

don't feel badly about not bending to the corporate will. we don't do it either- everything is either from scratch or a whole foods/organic line, though i have to say from you entries that it sounds like you do a better job. the only cereal we buy is a lower sugar budget brand cheerios knock off because it makes for easy snacking. we also do our best to limit our contribution to the waste chain, hence a lovely note from the student teacher telling me that our reusable containers of non sugary snacks were too difficult for my daughter to open. i just keep telling myself we are leading by example. i won't be goaded into feeding my family junk food and loading our schools up with brand names just for a relatively small corporate donation. i dunno, that would feel like selling my soul- and the kids' as well.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I don't think we do "a better job." We let the kids have junk, too, although Kouryou-chan has a fondness for granola and Yamaarashi-chan enjoys raisin bran, which we buy bulk from Costco. Even that's a problem: the bulk boxes' tops aren't suitable for turn-in. (That poor box of Frosted Mini Wheats has actually been neglected! What kind of weird children do I have‽) But we try to press on them "good" foods, and talk about self-discipline and limits and try to set good examples.

[taerin.livejournal.com]

Making sure kids aren't left out is a good idea. Eliminating a source of motivation to learn isn't helping them in the long run, and really not in the short run either. Being able to read fun books is a big part of the reward for learning to read.

Are they also acquiring textbooks in audio so kids won't be left out of doing homework?

[jenk]

The students in my high school who petitioned for audio books had motor difficulties that made it hard to hold a book and turn pages. Sometimes this was combined with visual problems (ever notice large print books are bulkier than normal?) Audio was a lot more efficient for them.

And yes, they asked for audio or large print textbooks too.

(One of the legacies of going to a high school with about 20 kids who had cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or other issues. Holding doors for anyone in a wheelchair is now an ingrained habit.)

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

Audio books are also good for listening to while reading along in the print book. It actually aids fluency, much as being read to and following along does.

Even just listening to the audio book gives exposure to literary language that might otherwise be lacking for kids who have not yet learned to read books at that level. It is always good for kids to be exposed to text at a higher level than they can yet read. Again, just like reading to them.

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

I do the newsletter for my daughter's PTA and I was recently complimented on what good spelling and grammar I have. Apparently in previous years the newsletter had problems and that's why I have to run the newsletter by the principal each month first.

[taxqueen.livejournal.com]

Nicky's school collects PCC receipts, and gets 1% of the total donated to the PTSA (I think it's available for any school that contacts PCC). It's nice, because we buy most of our food there now, and I don't have to feel bad about not buying Campbells :)

"et. al." isn't spelled "et. al." either

[(Anonymous)]

"Et al." is an abbreviation for "et alia" or "et alii" or "et alius", so one period is enough.