Based on last week’s readings on
poverty, I resolve, promise, and swear as a teacher never to ask kids and
families to bring things in from home.
As a parent, I’ve been guilty of soliciting parents for contributions for
teacher gifts and for class party funds.
I’ve run around town for my daughter, buying pieces for costumes and special
art supplies for projects, and snacks, and goodies for 3rd grade
market day. My daughter went to a middle
class elementary school, but even there the percent of students who qualify for
free or reduced lunch hovers between 10 and 20.
After the readings, I regret thinking that $5 here or $10 there was
affordable for everyone.
Her
costliest year was probably 3rd grade where the entire grade had
market day once a month. (I used this
earlier in 427 as my example of engaging teaching.) The kids were to bring something in from home
to sell for plastic class money. The
things kids brought in were mostly handcrafted, but still costly. There were root beer floats, and beaded
earrings, cupcakes and dog biscuits. I
still love the idea, but wonder if it could be modified so that the goods were
made in school from supplies in the classroom.
There
was also a biography unit, where the kids were to come in dressed as the figure
whose biography they read. My daughter
was Annie Oakley, and I bought her a skirt for the day. Again, I think this is a fun activity, but
perhaps the class could have a trunk of old-fashioned clothes from which to
borrow.
And
there’s snacks and birthday treats and field trips and school supplies and
school sweatshirts and yearbooks and lattes for the teacher. Nearly every week there is a cost that
separates those who can pay from those who can’t. Each year her school published the names of
the families who had joined the PTSA, which was ostensibly to thank those who
joined, but also shamed those who didn’t.
Some of
these things I am tempted to pay for myself.
But teachers can’t pay for everything out of their own pocket. I wonder about using crowdsourcing sites to
help fund some projects, but don’t really know how well that would work. Perhaps
PTSAs can collect money contributions blindly, and then distribute it to the
classrooms? There are parents who can
afford to contribute, and won’t rest until they do, but I’d argue that money
contributions in schools should be close to anonymous, and neither give
privileges or status to certain kids, nor take them away from others.
The idea of crowdsourcing for education is great. People use gofundme and other such sites to raise money for other kinds of projects.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I recently heard about a man who sold public shares of himself to people and they were able to inform his life decisions in return for the shares they held. His IPO was $1 and he no trades at $15!
That probably wouldn't work in schools, but still, having fundraising flexibility beyond selling cookie dough or wrapping paper would be nice :)
Really interesting examples, Emily, of the ways that family income matters in the daily life of schools.
ReplyDeleteDonorschoose.org is set up to raise money for classroom projects. Some cohorts have adopted some projects together. It's a good resource, but I still have mixed feelings about it. Why in the US don't all schools just have funds needed to do good teaching?