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From: suriano@iitmax.iit.edu (candice suriano)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.misc,ut.general,uw.general,uw.math.grad,york.general
Subject: Re: Subtle Math Questions
Message-ID: <1991Apr25.010145.15880@iitmax.iit.edu>
Date: 25 Apr 91 01:01:45 GMT
References: <1991Apr22.221923.2370@groucho> <1991Apr23.005446.28791@agate.berkeley.edu> <1991Apr23.014114.3603@ms.uky.edu> <1991Apr23.235053.6458@groucho>
Reply-To: suriano@iitmax.iit.edu (candice suriano)
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Lines: 36

In article <1991Apr23.235053.6458@groucho> foster@ted.cs.uidaho.edu writes:
>I think I mis-implied something in my posting about volunteerism.  I spoke of
>"we favored few" ironically to mean us working mathematicians.  I did not mean
>anything perjorative about current teachers...though there is little incentive
>for good math teachers to teach K12 and as a result there are not as many
>as there should be.  Nor did I mean to imply that "we" should drop everything
>and donate all of our time to K12 education without sacrificed our academic status.
>Mine was a modest proposal.  I had in mind ocassional visits to the local schools
>to let the students know that mathematics is a live (literally) subject.
>
>James

I applaud your idea of volunteerism, but you may have a tough time getting
any school to let you, especially a public elementary school.  For example,
in Illinois it is illegal for a child to be in the school library without
a certified teacher in a certified position being present.  My daughter's
school lost their librarian.  The idea was that some parents could spend
an hour or two a month as volunteers.  We all saw it as a great way
to be involved, help out, and keep our taxed down.  No way!!  The kids
can't be there without their regular classroom teacher or a certified
librarian.  They have an aide who is a certified librarian but she
doesn't count because the aide position is not a certified position!!
And they're having trouble finding a new librarian because the school
year is almost over.  But we do get to volunteer.  We shelve books and put
the plastic covers on the new ones.  That frees the aide to help the
teachers who can then bring the kids to the library!!  The idead
behind this brilliant law is that only people who know something about
elementary ed should be teaching the kids.  On the one hand it really 
makes me mad, but when I look at some of the parents who might be 
teaching my child I'm sort of glad I'm protected this way.
Anyway, my point is, before you get too excited about volunteering, you
need to check to see what you're allowed to do. (And at my daughter's
school it's only clerical)

Next I get to help duplicate computer disks :-).
Candi