7.4 continue 3.Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
As the largest volunteer child advocacy association in the nation, National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) reminds our country of its obligations to children and provides parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child while providing the best tools for parents to help their children be successful students.National PTA does not act alone. Working in cooperation with many national education, health, safety, and child advocacy groups and federal agencies, National PTA- collaborates on projects that benefit children and that bring valuable resources to its members.
History:
For more than a 100 years, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has provided support, infor nation and resources to families focused on the health and education of children. The organization was founded in 1897 in Washington DC as the National Congress of Mothers by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. If not for these women and their vision and determination, there would not be a PTA an organization that has been woven into the very fabric of American life.By whatever name it has been known, National PTA was created to meet a profound challenge: to better the lives of children. And today, it continues to flourish because PTA has never lost sight of its goal: to change the lives of children across our great nation for the better.
Governance:
National PTA is composed of 54 state congresses and nearly 26,000 local units in all 50 states, the District. of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Department of Defense Schools in Europe and the Pacific.National PTA, as directed by its board of directors, provides leadership, programs, support and resources to its members at all levels of the association.State PTAs are the liaison between the local PTA and National PTA, helping each to function effectively and to support and sustain the other. PTAs at the local are valuable assets to their school communities by providing educational and parent involvement information, resources, events, and Activities. They are linked to the state PTA and National PTA, forming a nationwide network of members working on behalf of all children and youth.
Objectives:
The program of the PTA is built around five objectives:
1. To promote the welfare of children and youth in home, school, church, and community
2. To raise the standards of home life
3. To secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth
4. To bring into closer relation the home and the school, the parents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the training of the child
5. To develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will secure for every child the highest advantages in physical, mental social, and spiritual education.
Policies:
Parent-Teacher Association is governed by four basic policies;
1. The organization shall be educational and shall develop its program through conferences, committees, and projects
2. The organization shall be noncommercial, non- sectarian, and nonpartisan
3. The organization shall work to improve the schools without seeking to direct their administration or control their policies The organization shall cooperate under certain conditions with other organizations and agencies having common interests
Purposes:
Some people who are uniformed or misinformed on the purposes and policies of ht parent-teacher organization mistakenly assume that the chief function of a P.T.A. is to raise money to buy equipment and furnishings for the school. But the chief purpose of the P.T.A. is education, and the organization has defined its main tasks;
1. Self-education on everything relating to children and
2. Public education - that is the creation of an enlightened public opinion on issues and conditions affecting the welfare and education of children
There is, however, some basis in fact for the misconception that the P.T.A. is a fund-raising agency for the school. For some time, it is true, the efforts of many P.T.A.'s "to improve the welfare of children in school" consisted in raising money to buy pianos, pictures, playground equipment, motion picture projectors, towels and soap for washrooms, rugs and cots for teachers rest rooms, and a variety of other things. But experience has demonstrated that P.T.A.'s give far more effective assistance to their schools by increasing public understanding of their needs and spurring the public conscience to provide adequate financing for all schools in a limited way.
Membership:
Parents, teachers, and any others who are interested in promoting the welfare of children and youth are eligible for membership in the PTA. Anyone who is willing to support the purpose and policies may join the organization upon payment of a small membership fee. Teachers may become voluntary members with full rights to become officers and to exert leadership in national, state, and local projects.
Functions:
The function of any association of parents and teaches is to serve the interest of youth. The PIA helps the home and the school to agree on the aims and objectives of the educational program. Maximum educational benefits are. possible only when parents and teachers share their knowledge of individual students and unite their efforts and their resources to provide the best possible environment, facilities, and experiences for the proper emotional, spiritual, and educational development of all children and youth.
A good PTA organization serves its young people, and I doing it also serves their parents and their teachers. It provides may meet an opportunity for parents to meet other parents who have similar problems. It provides opportunity for them to their children's teachers, and this usually results in better understanding between them. The PTA helps parents to derstand the school curriculum, the problems of administering extra class activities, and school regulations and policies.The parents may also become acquainted and with the needs of the school. Parents get frequent opportunities to study and assist in the its various services. The PTA offers an excellent opportunity to school administrators and teachers to interpret the school to the community. Here is the organ through which the public may be informed concerning new procedures and new methods in education. Through a good organization, the administrator can explain school needs and school problems. Here is his "sounding boar" for new ideas. Hera, also, is his public forum where free and open discussion of his problems and his anticipated innovations can be held with benefit to all. Here he finds almost unlimited opportunity to discuss such problems as school dropouts, adequate salaries, teacher recruitment, new methods of student and teacher evaluation, and many others.When the PTA serves the child, the parent, the teacher, and the administrator, it automatically serves the community good schools and high educational standards make a good community. If that is true, any organization which improves. the schools is thereby improving the community. A good PTA encourages and provides opportunity for youth, teachers, parents, and administrators to participate in studies for the betterment of the community and more important opportunities for doing something for the improvement of the social and recreational activities in the community, particularly as the affect the lives of the young people who live there. Some of the generally accepted areas for study and action by live PTA organizations with leadership from school personnel include:
1. An evaluation of the school program to see meeting the needs of all students
2.An evaluation of the school plant to determine whether or not the facilities are satisfactory
3. An evaluation of the system of reporting student progress to see if students, parents, and teachers are satisfied with its operation
4. A study of the moral and spiritual values which students should be receiving
5. A study of the number and kinds of recreational and social activities being provided by the school and the community
6. A study of employment of youth in the community as it relates to child-labor laws, absence from school, and earning a living
7.A study of juvenile delinquency in the community
8.
A study of the problems involved in getting students to attend higher-education institutions
9.A study of the citizenship training and habits of youth in the community
10. A study of marriage and family-life problems of the youth in the community