Putting The Public Back In Public Education

I have learned that it is best not to do the math. If you know that your kid's school has an enrollment of about three hundred, and even if they are coming from broken or compromised family settings, shouldn't there be about three hundred adults available for any sundry fund-raising event? Of course this is realistic, since we all have busy lives and commitments that keep us from being as involved as we would like to be, and so that three hundred would more realistically be cut in half. That one hundred and fifty would be very close to the total number of customers we served at this morning's pancake breakfast. Kids, parents, grandparents, and relatives from out of town. The number of dads who showed up to flip pancakes, wipe tables and serve a sausage or two was less than one tenth of that number.
And I said that it would be best not to do the math. It makes me sound peevish, because I feel like the families at my son's school are very supportive and there are a great many that are actively participating in their children's educational experience. I'm not peevish. I'm confounded, because on the other side of this coin is my experience as a teacher. I make a point to give out my home phone number to the kids and families of my class at the beginning of the year. This is used primarily by those students who forget which page in what workbook the homework can be found, and every so often a parent or older sibling will call to ask how to explain the difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. I send home a behavior report for every student each week, and call home when those reports don't return signed. Still, the only face-to-face meetings I have had with many of my students' parents have come at report card time, when they are required to attend a fifteen minute conference in order to receive their kids' grades. With all of this input, what amazes me is that no one, parent or kid, has ever called me to ask me how they are doing in class. I've made those calls to them, almost as if they expected that if the news was really bad, Mister Caven would call them.
That is true. I have and will continue to, but it sure makes the gulf between those that have and those who do not even more clear. Participate in your child's education, and see if it doesn't find its way back to you. Go ahead. I dare you.