I agree with all the posts I've seen that there are ways to take the money concerns out of the childrens sight. We do our book fair during conference week, so when the parents come in for teacher conferences they can stop and look at the books or not. Many parents bring their kids and they often look at the books while the parents are in conference. Since the conferences are held all week including one evening, book fair purchases wouldn't be known to anyone.
Yearbooks and author books: We give all fifth graders a free yearbook. Out of 300 kids, we sold 140 yearbooks and gave 60 to our fifth graders. We have an author or illustrator come in every year and give all fifth graders a free signed hardback book. Anyone else can purchase (and have signed) books usually ranging from $2.95 to $11.00. We pull the kids from class that purchase the book but it's not made a big deal of. I think many parents just forget to order the books...
PTA and the school district pay for all field trips. The majority of them do not have gift shops and if they do, they're not allowed in them for very long.
Holiday shop - we took that out of the school day a few years ago and now have it "open" just three times - in the afternoon once, during the holiday social at night and on a Saturday morning.
Fundraisers - Items are picked up after school hours. The prizes are packed in the items so no one would know who sold the most.
Pictures - Like someone said, I don't think the kids are aware of who is not buying pictures. They're pretty cheap but the company we use is not the best so some people may not buy them because they'd rather go to Olan Mills or Sears or Walmart!
Like some of the others that responded, our school pictures are a "school" deal, the PTO has nothing to do with them other than we find a volunteer to put the yearbook together. Everyone's picture ends up in the yearbook and our photo company has some really inexpensive packages(we're talking less than $10). Our yearbooks are $8.50. We doubled student population last year when we joined with another school so we cut some of the party pages to keep the price down to an affordable level. I'm sure there may be some who still can't afford this, and if a teacher noticed a child who was particularly upset she would let one of the board members know and we'd take care of it.
Teachers don't plan field trips where kids need extra money. If the field trip itself cost money, we give each of our teachers a discretionary fund for classroom needs and they can draw from that to pay for children in need or come to the PTO. I personally think it's important to teach kids that you can have a lot of fun without spending a cent. Trips to the park to study wildlife, a tour of a fire station or hospital...FREE!!!
We eliminated our Santa shop several years ago because of the disparities we were seeing. We now do a craft event during the school day where the kids MAKE gifts to give at the holidays. The PTO buys the materials, we ask for a $1 donation but it's not required(some send nothing others send $5 or more). Best of all the kids absolutely love this event.
The principal and office staff are also great about letting us know of any children who need help with supplies, books, or money so they can attend events. We desperately try to keep costs low, so people can afford a night out.
There are some parents who like to flaunt their money-that's something they will have to deal with when they meet their maker. Others know they are lucky and share their good fortune in discreet ways. I sneak mystery gifts to the classroom and last year we anonymously paid for a student in need to attend a summer enrichment program.
It's tough to make everything in life fair. It's particularly hard on young children who don't understand finances. They just see someone getting something when they aren't. Just remembering that there are others who may not have what you have every time you come up with a program idea can help.
I'm of two minds here, but let me first address the issues you brought up. We have pictures and not everyone buys them. I don't, we have professional ones made on our home leave and prefer those. But they take the pictures for the yearbook. Our yearbooks are EXPENSIVE, but that's a luxury you can choose to have or not. I have three kids and I only buy one. Pictures and yearbooks are a personal choice and may not reflect affordability. If your PTO could afford to buy everyone a 5th grade yearbook then that would be a great deal! Field trips and gift shop purchases: Kids should not be allowed to purchase anything on these trips. Granted we don't have those kind of trips here, but when we were evacuated to Houston we took as many trips as possible. Only when we went to NASA did we allow the kids to bring money. But then again, the families who were evacuated were generally the more affluent ones in the school and a large majority of the parents went on this trip too as we were kind of on vacation. Should your PTO sometimes give a child a freebie? Sure, but not always. How would you feel if you were given free stuff all the time and KNEW it was because you couldn't afford it. Kid's are pretty astute! Also, this is very much a life lesson. Isn't there times we all want something just out of our reach? We don't always get things handed to us.
Leveling the playing field in the area of education is so important for children. That should be a key focus in our schools! All these other things are just perks in my opinion.
I'm not so sure I agree with you; maybe there's a difference in how things are handled at your school. (I guess there's always the chance that I'm an ignorant, insensitive boor, though, too....)
With regards to pictures--are you suggesting that schools not take pictures? At ours, everyone gets a picture taken, whether they have brought money or not. When they come in, the teachers discreetly put the completed photos in their backpacks. This way, everyone gets their photo in the yearbook--they're not left out if they can't afford it--and not a big deal is made of the fact that some people haven't bought packages. Also, maybe my kids are weird, but the three that I have in schools could not care less about their pictures when they come in. I'm lucky they remember to give them to me.
Field trips--our schools specifically prohibit the kids from bringing extra money to buy snacks or souvenirs. I think this is an excellent policy, for exactly the reasons you give. As for affording the field trip fee itself, our PTA will pay for anyone who demonstrates an inability to pay (and that decision goes through the school counselor, not the PTA).
As for fundraisers--actually, the lower income schools in our area do pretty well with the fundraisers like Sally Foster, Innisbrook, etc. But we also notice that those kids tend to sell more outside their immediate family. The theory--completely unproven--is that since these parents can't afford to contribute themselves, selling to others is something that they can do to help the school that doesn't harm their pocketbooks any.
If you're talking about fundraising events--most events that involve kids are either free or very low cost. You can come to our bingo night and have 3 hours of fun for $2.50--cheaper than renting a movie! Some schools in our area have parent only events that are expensive--like a dinner dance with a silent auction, where the admission is upwards of $50. Granted, some parents are left out of that, but not kids.
I'll be interested to see what other comments you get....
Does your parent group do any thing to alleviate this problem? Our schools seem very sensitive to this.
First of all, we don't allow any incentives for fundraisers. Although they would increase sales, we don't want the competetion between the children. We only do one fundraiser a year (gift wrap) and items are picked up by parents, not sent home with the kids. This way nobody really knows who sold alot or who sold nothing.
We provide every fifth grader with a free yearbook each year.
Since parents pay for field trips, the PTO provides funds for any children who can't afford to go. At every field trip my kids have attended, they have not been allowed to purchase souvenirs.
I don't know much about how school pictures work. They're run by the school, not our parent group. I don't know how many kids don't order a package.
At our book fairs, we discreetly give free books to the kids who may need them. It's a tough call- some kids don't bring money because their families can't spare any, some don't have money because they're coming later with their parents to shop. Usually the chair person approaches the teacher and asks who might be in the first category. Then they say that the child's name was chosen in a raffle or something and the child can choose a free book.
We also have a RIF program where three times a year every child in the school gets to choose a free book.
If you're very concerned with the haves vs. the have nots in your school, please encourage your parent group, and your administrators, to do something about it. We can't equalize family incomes, but we can try and make sure all kids get the same opportunities in school.
Here's our problem, and I assume it's got to be common:
70% of our elementary school students get student pictures; 30% get photographed knowing they're getting nothing, because they didn't bring money.
Many departing 5th graders don't get yearbooks.
Kids go on field trips and watch affluent children buy candy and souvenirs, getting nothing.
And it seems that all of this obsession about new and different fundraisers makes it worse!
Why in the world are we injecting cash into classrooms full of little children? Our school community seems to completely take for granted that some 5 and 6 year olds will be left out of significant rites of passage (class pictures, e.g.) and fun because they didn't have CASH!
Is this just a Southern thing?! Do ANY of us treat our children's classmates like this at birthday parties or elsewhere outside school? And what do we think we are teaching young kids when -- year after year -- they sit on the sidelines learning that NOT ONLY do they not get the fun things other kids get... and NOT ONLY is that okay with all the grownups... BUT there is also nothing in life they can do to earn the things they want.
