While Patty and I were having our first cup and first of the day chat this morning, I asked her if the Parent Teacher Association was still a dependable foundation-member of public education.  Were there still a lot of parents involved?

It was on my mind because a couple of hours before I had dreamed of being in about the fourth grade at William B. Travis Elementary School, and members of the PTA were orchestrating Valentine's Day parties in each of the classrooms. 

The Messrs. Boldman, Jordan, Tramonte, Green, Jones and my own mother were among others who were helping my class pass out Valentine's cards.  It was great having the opportunity to see them again, young and well in my dream. 

The year of my dream would have been 1949, and America remained in the time warp where few mothers worked outside of the home.

Patty told me this morning that even though there were many working mothers, nevertheless the school PTAs were still active and had great influence over public education because of their hands-on involvement.  Wikipedia explains:

"There are nearly 23,000 local organizations recognized by the National PTA in the United States. and therefore correctly termed official PTAs. The generic term "PTO" is used to refer to either all parent-teacher groups (regardless of affiliation) or (more often) to just independent parent-teacher groups, who choose not to be affiliated with the National PTA. Roughly 75% of U.S. parent-teacher groups are independent groups (PTOs).

"The National PTA is a non-profit organization that is 110 years old, with membership open to anyone who believes in the Mission and Purposes of National Parent Teacher Association.  PTA membership - including the number of affiliated units and of individual members - has been declining for several decades.

"The group boasted more than 12 million members as recently as the late-1960s; whereas today membership is down below 5.5 million.

At the local level, the goal of all parent-teacher groups is to support their schools, encourage parent involvement, support teachers, organize family events and the like. PTOs and PTAs are able to take advantage of a variety of resources to help them with their work."

Any adult can join a chapter of the Parent Teachers Association, so many retired people, especially grandparents of children in a school, are finding this a beneficial way to make important contributions.

I was thinking it would be wonderful if all Realtors were to join and participate in the activities of at least one school's PTA, perhaps a PTA in the area they farm.

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry