Being familiar with the local schools is necessary if constructive suggestions are to be made. The reason I feel that citizen involvement in the classroom, working directly with students, is imperative is that I believe that schools are forced to contend with the problems in society when they work with children. This is apparent in the wake of student violence in the schools. The problems we have lived with in the rest of the world could not help but invade the schools eventually. Although I imagine some of those reports would prove to be false, I believe far more cases of abuse go unreported.
Schools can only do so much with the raw material and resources they are given.
When significant numbers of their students are abused, neglected, or hurting in any way that is not reasonable, it is difficult to really teach any of the children as effectively as we and they would like. Until we, as a community, acknowledge our responsibility for all children, the schools are doomed to fail. In order to ensure that the volunteers in the classroom will be effective and will contribute to the learning environment, training programs need to be designed and implemented. Volunteers need to be able to deal with the challenges of teaching and helping children without overstepping their boundaries in any way. I also feel that a proper training program will demonstrate the commitment required of those who wish to work with the children.