Here is a bit of irony. I went to an educational lrteuce this evening as a PTA representative. The talk was given by a guy named Will Richardson, his subject was using blogs, wickis, podcasts etc… in the classroom. The fact that educators and parents need to help kids use the tools and information, not bar them from it. So I came home and checked out his website found a search place for blogs, and found this one! I’ve been in PTA, the real affiliated one, for about fourteen years. I have stayed with it because at its heart it is a child advocacy organization and encourages parent involvement in education, its hard to argue with that. I don’t think of myself as the average “PTA Mom” either. I drive a Prius and live on a farm. I understand the negative outlook, not every PTA functions in the way the state and national organizations encourage them to function. Getting Dads involved is a major initiative of PTAs across the country. You are right it is mostly female, but it doesn’t have to be. One of my ideas is for PTAs to have “single parent nights” who knows maybe PTA meetings can become a good way to find a date, and become involed in your kid’s school at the same time. You may not think of yourself as PTA material, but there is a good chance that the people who are active in PTA at your school do some good stuff that may even benefit your child. Buying a five dollar membership is probably a pretty painless way to support the programs that the PTA sponsors. Check out the national PTA website http://www.pta.org. You might be surprised!