It was “Back to School Night” tonight and it was a TOTAL BLAST! Well, no, not really. But it was fairly typical: the sound system didn’t work; the PTA president begged for money and volunteers; the principal introduced the staff; and the meeting room all the parents squeezed into was standing room only because there were so many folks there. And after that, we broke out into individual classrooms to talk with our children’s teachers and see the lesson plans for the coming year. In my daughter’s class I counted no less than 15 groups of parents for a 20 child 1st-grade class (about half were just moms and the rest were moms and dads both). Not too shabby. Involvement by 75% of the parents seems pretty good to me. It was the same last year for kindergarten.

Typical, right? Atypical? Does involvement decrease as the children get older? What’s normal at your school?