When your PTA luck runs out!

I know I was really lucky. I got through the first nine years of my eldest's education (preschool and elementary) without ever getting roped into PTA. But my luck ran out this year. As of yesterday, I am now the Public Relations Representative for my second eldest's sixth grade class.

Parents Teacher Association

Let's rewind a bit... PTA, you ask? No, it does not stand for Physical Therapist Assistant. Well not in Japan anyway. PTA stands for Parents Teacher Association. They use the letters PTA, but there is also the word "yakuin" 役員 in Japanese. The concept was brought to Japan by the Americans  after World War II, but over the years it became a uniquely Japanese practice. Basically, for each class, in each grade, at least one parent is expected to "volunteer" as a representative of the parents. There are set roles for that representative.

They say PTA is voluntary, but in essence it is not. Everyone is expected to do their bit at least once over the course of their children's education. For those at bigger schools or schools with lots of people naturally inclined to actively volunteer for the roles, it really does come down to luck as to whether or not you get to evade it. But if you are in a small school or a school with a lot of roles, the odds are against you!

So, I was lucky to avoid it for so many years. However, in my defense, I did actually try to volunteer for it once, when my third eldest was in the middle of three years at preschool. Long story short, another Mother ended up taking on the role. In addition, I did "yomikikase" storytelling at school every year. 

PTA roles

Each school differs greatly in not only what type of PTA roles they have available. Generally speaking there is at least two roles. One is usually related to Bell Mark collecting and organization, the other to Public Relations. Interestingly, at my kid's preschool Bell Mark was not considered "PTA", it was just one of dozens of voluntary jobs. Thus at preschool almost every parent had some sort of job every year. Only two or three roles fall under "PTA" in both preschool and elementary school in my town.

In my town, at first glance the PTA at our school looks quite small and easy going in comparison to neighboring cities. But its a mirage! Because in my town half of the PTA is hidden behind "kodomo no kai", which translates to "children's meeting (/assembly)".

The Kodomo no Kai is managed by a geographical area. There are about 10 areas within our school's district. Each area has its own independent kodomo no kai and you are also expected to volunteer for that at least once, when you have children in upper grades only. My husband did the kodomo no kai role last year when my eldest was in 6th grade. He was lucky because, thanks to the pandemic, it was a much easier role last year than normal.

If you have a position at the Kodomo no Kai you are exempt from doing PTA the same year. Other than that, the only reason you are exempt from "volunteering" for PTA at elementary school is if you have extenuating circumstances. In preschool they are actually quite good to pregnant Moms and Moms of babies and they don't have to do PTA. But in Elementary school its each wo/man for her/himself!

How do they assign PTA roles?

Again, this differs greatly by school. In my school, they start by asking if anyone wants to volunteer. And if you are really lucky two people will shoot their hands up, one volunteering for Bell Mark, one for PR, and that's that. If nobody volunteers outright it can go one of two ways. One is that you draw straws (or something equivalent - some schools use rock, paper, scissors!) or the other they sum up your PTA past! 

The latter is what happened with my sixth grader's class. The teacher got everybody who was currently in "kodomo no kai" and / or had previously volunteered for PTA in either elementary school or junior high school to stand to one side. All those Moms breathed a sigh of relief as they moved to the other side of the room.  Having just finished a year of "kodomo no kai" and having annually volunteered for "yomikikase" may have put me in good favor and got me off the hook...had there not been just two of us left standing!!

My fate was sealed. The other Mom let me choose which of the two roles to take. I chose "Public Relations" because I like taking photos and hated the "Bell Mark" job in kindy. But also because I know she is a kindergarten teacher and would find it hard to attend all the school events to take photos. She seemed happy enough to do Bell Mark over PR. 

I had always intended to do PTA at least once. As I said above, I did actually try to volunteer for it once before. However, I really wanted to avoid doing it for a sixth grade class because there is a lot more work for sixth grade PTA parents. In most schools, including my children's, you also have to help with graduation when you are on the PTA for sixth grade. My PTA luck certainly did run out!