The Only Dad at the PTO

I've decided that next year I want to be the president of the local Parent Teacher Organization.  At least, I think I have.  We have a very good one, an active one with a lot of volunteers that work hard to support the school.  And yet, the meetings are frustrating.  

They run long.  People mumble or speak softly and fast.  No one wants to second a motion so I constantly do.  People hardly ask questions.  They just listen.  

I know I am looking differently at this because I am the only father there.  I'm the only man there.  I want to be involved and so I go every month.  But I see that the mood changes.  I know that the atmosphere is different when I'm there.  And I worry that if I become president and try to run meetings then it will affect how individually involved the other families are.  Because while the meetings are painful, the moms who volunteer really do a lot of good work.

I told my wife that she should be president.  She is more organized than I am.  She can be just as direct as I can be.  More so sometimes, and she would make sure that everything got done like it needed to.  But I think she's afraid of upsetting someone.  Maybe that's the difference here.  Maybe that's why the women are quieter and things take longer because they're not going to be direct and instead put their energy into the actual volunteering.  Maybe my leadership would upset that balance and make things fall apart.

Maybe I shouldn't run for president after all.

Met My School's New Superintendent

Heather and I went to the PTO meeting at McKenna's elementary and met with the new superintendent of the district.  His name's Dr. Bill Harner, and aside from a penchant for speaking about himself in the third-person, he seems grounded and ready to tackle the challenges at the school.  Now, those who know Cumberland Valley School District wouldn't think that there'd be many challenges, given it's higher ranking in the Commonwealth and in the nation in general, but I don't think that that's true.

Modern education's always a moving target.  The skills our children need to have, and the education they need to possess need to grow with the times, but schools also can't ignore fundamentals or just keep chasing the latest fads or else the kids, and all of us together, suffer.

So we sat for two hours in the cafeteria at the school and listened to him talk.  Dr. Harner's a former army commander and teacher from West Point with a list of degrees the length of his arm, so I expected a crisp forceful speech delivered with a booming voice and commanding authority.  That's not what he delivered.  He was genial, he rambled, he was personable.  He spoke at length about accelerating children, for example, moving Algebra I down to 8th grade so more kids advance into AP Calculus II by their senior year, and moving foreign languages into middle school so kids can get six or seven years of language before moving into college.

His overall goal is to move CV from around 1600th in the nation to within the top 250.

I hope he can do it.