School meetings

I went to a meeting for the Dual-Immersion program that Jackson is enrolled in today. It was a plea for volunteers, to help with everything from finding resource materials to fundraising, grant-writing to communication with parents. I was a little overwhelmed hearing all of the needs of the program, in addition to the needs of the PTA. A friend and parent at the meeting shared with me that a woman who moved from the program here to another program in a more affluent community over the hill (ok, Diane in Pleasanton) was alarmed to find that her school limited the time of parent volunteering to 1 hour per month! I have to admit, after sitting through that meeting the thought of a self-sufficient program sounded really good to me. This friend argued that she'd rather be in a situation like ours where we all have to work together and form a community in order to make the program successful, rather than being prohibited from participating. I love these fabulous parents that we are working with to make this program great for our kids, but frankly if it were already great and had enough funds, staffing etc I'd be happy to sit back and let the paid professionals take over. I'd rather take care of all the outside of school stuff (and with only 3 hours of school, there is plenty of that) then to have to do that job too.

I love the East Bay- I love the people I have met, the diversity of the neighborhood we live in, the great restaurants- but daily living seems to be a real struggle here. Things that I took for granted in Colorado- good schools, safe streets, clean air- are things that we have to battle for here. Frankly, I'm not up for all this fighting. I'd like to fight against all the other obstacles that our kids will come up against- and there are plenty out there in areas where there are good schools and quiet neighborhoods; I'd just like big things to be that which we take for granted. Don't get me wrong: of course I'm going to put in my time as a parent in this program: but I'm just going to be wondering if somehow I'm short-changing my son by not providing a more solid educational experience, manned (or womaned) by professional educators and not parents trying to eke out a good education from a not-so-good district. That's my rant for today.