Ana, the PTA president at my school, said in our interview that in the countries where our student body's parents are from, an organization like the PTA does not exist. Parents naturally come to school and help. Therefore, a formal organization like the PTA is a foreign concept for them and one they aren't feeling comfortable joining.
However, being a first generation American myself and having my mother join the PTA in my childhood allowed my mother to feel like she had a place in this American organization and a voice in my educational success.
This is what I want for my students.
Our area and school was middle and upper middle class, but about 45% of the children were first generation Americans. It is a diverse community with the population coming from the Asian nations, Japan and Korea mostly. There were also Chinese, and Indian and Pakistan children. Our PTA embraced the various cultures and utilized it in our activities wherever possible. I remember that the Korean women often did not speak much English, their children were more capable than they were. Their husbands were multi-lingual and worked in New York City in executive positions.
ReplyDeleteIn all cases the children benefited when their mothers (or Fathers) were involved with the PTA.
Even though my children are still too young for school I know that the elementary school in my neighborhood utilizes a lot of parental support. One of the not so great things that have happened to schools recently is the cutting off of programs like art and music. Last month I watched my neighbor's young child so she could help with her son's class in an art program that his teacher had set up and implemented solely through parent volunteer help.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the hardest parts in getting first generation Americans to be a part of things such as PTA is the language barrier. In my experience as a teacher we had a handful of teachers/staff who could translate for us. With the language barrier it was hard for the parents to be involved and it was hard for me to express my desire for them to be involved.
ReplyDeleteOur Asian community consisted of a lot of women who did not speak English and they were used to having husbands who spoke fluent English, and worked in the city. They were a somewhat closed community amongst themselves. If we had a fund raiser, we asked them to (for instance) cook something to sell from their culture. They were thrilled to do that, and over the years, things like that became tradition and it encouraged more involvement on their part.
ReplyDeleteIn talking with a friend who's a teacher in an area where there are lower income families, one of the things that we discussed is that there may not be a lot of desire for involvement from all parents, so the ones that do wish to paricipate may find themselves alone, and in a minority. A PTA organization gives those people, wishing to help out, or learn more or be involved, a forum when they might not have any other way.