Parents Pitch In Elementary Schools Welcome Involvement Of Parents Willing To Volunteer In Classrooms

Elaine Swanson plans to help teach her own children and their classmates for the next 12 years, until her youngest child completes fifth grade.

“I just think the parent is the most important teacher in the child’s life,” said Swanson, whose son Jesse is a first grader in Central Valley School District’s SPACE program. Jesse’s three younger siblings also will attend SPACE.

“With my kids’ education, I just believe that the parents have to be involved,” Swanson said.

At a time when youth violence has led to a cry for more parental responsibility, Swanson and others like her couldn’t possibly be more involved in their children’s educations. They’re in the classrooms for several hours each week, helping children learn.

These parents are in West Valley’s SPICE (student parent interactive classroom environment) and Central Valley’s SPACE (student parent alternative classroom environment) programs.

Parents say they’re involved because they want to form a community - of parents, teachers and children - in the classroom. An African expression says, “It takes a whole village to raise a child.” These parents couldn’t agree more.

It’s typical in our society that people, even neighbors, are strangers, said Susan Brumback, a parent active in SPICE for seven years. “Your kid goes away from you all day long and you don’t know what is happening to them. (SPICE) gives a greater sense of assurance that they’re being taken care of.”

Kim Mayer, also a SPICE parent, agreed. “I want to know who my children are around and involved with.”

Parents who enroll their children in the programs required to put in 90 hours per year, but usually work more. WV’s SPICE, for first through fifth graders, has been around for 10 years. CV’s SPACE, which goes through sixth grade, is in its eighth year.

Some of the parents’ time is spent grading papers, collating worksheets and running the copy machine, but most of it is spent helping students.

On a recent afternoon in teacher Teresa Gothmann’s first- and second-grade classroom at South Pines Elementary, SPACE mothers Jackie Laurich, Elaine Swanson, and Cindi Plowman moved from child to child, helping each through a math and geography lesson.

Laurich, whose daughter Chelan is in the class, stopped to help Amanda Johnson.

“What state is made up of issslands,” Amanda read from her worksheet, adding the silent “s” in the word “islands.”

“No,” Laurich corrected, “the “s” is silent.”

Amanda’s hand wandered around a map of the United States until she landed on Hawaii.

“Okay, that’s a good guess,” Laurich said.

“It is Hawaii,” chimed in student Miyeko Takeshita, from across the table.

SPICE and SPACE parents say their children have a greater respect for education because they see how important it is to their parents.

“My kids benefit because they see that I think it’s important,” said Laurich, who’s been involved with SPACE since the beginning.

The parents don’t help only students who are behind. Accelerated children also need assistance so they can work at their own level and stay challenged. It provides for a more personalized education, parents say.

And the children seem to have no trouble approaching their friends’ parents for help. Said Swanson of her son Jesse, “He knows they’re other kids’ moms and he feels comfortable with that.”

Sometimes, they’re other kids’ dads, or even grandparents. It’s not just stay-at-home moms who volunteer. Each parent’s individual talent is applied in the class, and with so many parents involved, teachers have many resources to tap.

Once, Gothmann’s class was doing a section on simple machines, so one of the dads, a mechanic, came in and led a presentation. And Gothmann works her schedule around another of the dads, who comes in to teach physical education.

“They do a lot for me. But I am the overseer,” Gothmann said.

SPICE teachers are convinced the help they get in the classroom benefits the children.

“It’s incredible how three adults can get to the kids more than one can,” said Jeannie Martin, who teaches first and second grade SPICE students at Seth Woodard Elementary.

Among the benefits teachers cite are: more researchers for class projects, extra field trips supported by parent fund raisers, and help with grunt work such as copying and collating.

“Whatever we give them to do, they do,” Martin said.

Parents so close to the classroom also have immediate feedback on curriculum. They are constantly aware of what their child is studying and can focus on that subject at home, too. And when there’s a problem, said Brumback, “I don’t have to go into a (parent/teacher) conference to know how my child is doing.”

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