Fresh Ideas: Confessions of a mom who volunteered at school

It has been quite a summer, baseball games, barbeques and music festivals. It doesn't get much better than that. However, as with most things in life, change is in the cool, crisp air. Fall is here and that means back-to-school.

Last Wednesday, our high school senior bopped into the house and announced that tonight is open house at Carson High. "Oh!" I said. I'd better call Dad and let him know so that we can rearrange our schedule."

"You mean you are going?" she asked. "Of course. We haven't missed an open house in 12 years, why would we start now?" I answered.

At 7 that evening, we were in the gym listening to Carson High School principal Glen Adair present his back-to- school speech for our last time. As we followed our daughter's schedule and met with all of her teachers, I could not help but think of the beginning of her education at Fremont Elementary. In those days Fremont was not zoned and in order to enroll your child there you had to wait in line in the freezing month of March.

Fremont often got a bad rap as the school for the privileged but the truth was that it was the school for the children of crazy mothers. My friend and I arrived on the appointed day at 6:30 a.m., stood in a snowstorm bundled in ski clothes, drinking from our Thermos of hot chocolate. The line had already formed, which proved that there were mothers crazier than we were.

I was sharing this experience with a friend of mine whose son entered kindergarten this year in another school district. During the course of the conversation, she said that she had offered to volunteer at his school and both the teacher and the principal had failed to acknowledge her interest.

I was surprised because my efforts to volunteer in the Carson City School District have always been either gratefully received or in some instances at least tolerated. They let me volunteer in the classroom in spite of my total inability to operate a mimeograph machine. My daughter's kindergarten teacher asked me to run some copies of the following day's assignment for her.

I loaded the assignment into the ancient mimeograph machine and flipped the switch. Instead of spitting out copies, it began to smoke and fume. About that time, then-principal Dorothy Todd came around the corner. I thought for sure that I would be fired, but she didn't even raise her voice. After that I was allowed to use the Xerox to fulfill my copying volunteer duties.

I continued to work in the classroom each week until my daughter entered middle school. During her middle school years, I coached an Odyssey of the Mind team and served on several Carson City School District committees.

Did I make a difference in my daughter's education? Maybe. Studies show that parental involvement in education can be a factor in the success of the student. Did I make a difference in the education of any of the students I worked with on an individual basis? Did I lighten the teacher's workload a little bit so they could spend more time teaching and less time at the mimeograph machine? Did my efforts on the Carson City Strategic Planning Committee or the Budget Committee improve the educational system in Carson City?

I would like to think that I made a difference for the better, but the truth is that the impact of my volunteer activities was probably infinitesimal. However, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. It was fun. It was challenging. It was an enormous learning experience for me.

So as I contemplate my daughter's last year of high school, I am grateful that the Carson City School District has an open door policy toward parents. I am grateful that I was allowed to participate in the process. I am grateful for the tolerance shown me as a crazy mother. I have followed the progress of many the students that I worked with when they were in elementary school, and it has been rewarding and exciting to see them develop their individual talents and personalities and to become decent people.

Linda E. Johnson is a wife, mother, attorney, chronic volunteer and a 25-year resident of Carson City.