I know exactly how frustrating this particular subject is, and I see it from both sides. What I have encouraged our teachers to do is to pick two events during the school year to attend. I have found that by doing this, I always have a couple of teachers at each event. But also know this, no matter what school you are dealing with you will always deal with teachers who will not do anything for the PTO.

" In addition, our principal does not "make them" volunteer. "

Does the President/CEO of the fortune 500 company in your area 'make' their employees do pro bono work after hours?

Why should it be any different in public education?

Volunteer work is just that.

Funny timing. Below is my March '07 column for our magazine. It's in the archives as a password-protected article for PTO Today Plus members, but I'll cut-and-paste it here, since it's so relevant.

Here's the link if you need it: forms.ptotoday.com/member/articles/artic...cle=0307timturn.html

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Tim’s Turn
Let Teachers Teach
by Tim Sullivan

I fit the description perfectly of the type of person who—right about now, during these long days in the middle of the parent group year—should be griping that teachers don’t do their share to help out our parent groups.

I’m a parent group leader at my children’s school. I spend my professional days working with parent group leaders across the country. I’m a huge believer that teachers should support parent involvement, and I know for a fact that teachers benefit in so many ways from parent involvement. By all rights, I should be leading the charge in the annual “why do we even have the ‘T’ in ‘PTO’ anyway?” whine session.

But I won’t do it. And neither should you. It’s simply not productive, and it can do real harm in our schools.

Forget your group’s name or the middle letter of your acronym for a second; that letter T has led to more misplaced stress for parent groups than anything else I can think of. Instead, ask “What are the goals of our group?” Is your intention to somehow have parents helping with teachers’ work? Are parents teaching reading and math? Or are you, like nearly all the groups I work with, focused on developing a community of parents to help create the best environment for your kids to learn in and for excellent teachers to teach in?

The most accurate name for our groups would be Parent Association or Involvement Committee or even (like one acronym) Home and School Association.

I’m not suggesting we all go about changing our groups’ well-established names. But I am suggesting that we not let those well-established names send us into unwarranted battles with teachers. It’s absolutely great when teachers proactively connect with our parent group efforts. And it’s awful and harmful to our schools and kids when teachers actively work against us. But it’s also absolutely possible to do great work without teachers serving on any of our committees or attending any of our meetings.

Would you rather have teachers who excel at teaching the three R’s and inspiring our kids in the classroom but who don’t get involved with your parent group? Or teachers who are just OK at teaching the three R’s but love counting fundraising returns and attending spaghetti suppers? I’ll take the first every time. And our group will gladly work to create the kind of atmosphere where those terrific teachers can excel even more.

In the best case, obviously, we’d have great teachers who also actively cooperate with our parent group efforts. And those who desire it are more than welcome to join and help lead the group. With that in mind, it’s important to note that the annual “Where are the T’s?” gripe session (or perhaps you only give teacher grants to those who attend your meetings—ugh!) actually causes even more distance between your group and teachers. That doesn’t help anyone.

Great administrators administrate. Great teachers teach. Great parent groups create an atmosphere that encourages involvement and learning and community. When we each play our key roles well—even if we have to play them alone—our schools win.
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As the son of a 30-year first grade teacher who rarely attended a PTO meeting or PTO event (but who taught the heck out of reading and inspired tons of kids to love school), I'll take my mom over a just-OK teacher anyday.

Tim

I agree with all above. The harsh reality is, whether we like it or not, our teachers spend more time with our kids each day than we do. We continually ask our teachers if they can/would volunteer for various events and some do and some don't. I understand how it can be frustrating, especially considering so much of what the pto's do benefits them, but we never push. If they feel pressured that may only cause hard feelings and then they would feel like we don't appreciate them for what they do take care of.

As others mentioned, our teachers do help out in ways we don't always see first hand too. They help collect labels, box tops, pass out flyers, make announcements. Many of them will even help out during "school hours" events. They will take their class and stay to help with the event instead of disappearing for a break or something. Those little things add up.

jurijeka;129221 wrote: The majority of our teachers feel that if they aren't going to be compensated, they aren't going to participate in after hours events. We do have a few that will be there occasionally and a couple that are always there. The event that is the "our" event is the dance. This is the second year for it and that's where we get the most teacher attendance. It's one of those things that we've learned to let go of. If they talk about the events and get the kids excited about them, we are happy.

We consider the teachers' main role in the PTO to identify areas of need. They are in the trenches with the kids every day and they know more than anyone what is needed or what will be appreciated. I hope that when they do see an area where PTO can help, they submit a 'Wish List' item to us to address the problem. Sometimes, that is enough to bring things to the principal's attention and the problem is solved without PTO. Sometimes, it turns into an elaborate project. We are trying to make the teachers not 'feel bad' for asking to PTO to do or buy things. We are trying to foster the idea that PTO is a cooperative effort and they are all an important part of it. If they volunteer at our events, that's just a bonus.

The majority of our teachers feel that if they aren't going to be compensated, they aren't going to participate in after hours events. We do have a few that will be there occasionally and a couple that are always there. The event that is the "our" event is the dance. This is the second year for it and that's where we get the most teacher attendance. It's one of those things that we've learned to let go of. If they talk about the events and get the kids excited about them, we are happy.