Schools With Heart: Voluntarism And Public Education

What are schools with heart? They are schools that invite a profusion of volunteers to work inside them. Rich in community connections, the schools and the students they serve benefit considerably from donations of time.The importance of school volunteers has been underestimated greatly as an aspect of educational policy. Often regarded as just providing extras,” their presence in public schools brings acutely needed resources, raises issues of who controls schools, and contributes to the growth of social capital among students, school personnel, and community members. The use of volunteers may be one of the key solutions to problems facing public elementary schools today.Brown explores school voluntarism by using original data gathered from 185 interviews with public school principals, teachers, and volunteers, many of whom worked in schools known for their volunteer programs. Supplementing these data from other studies, this careful inquiry finds that volunteers offer much to schools. Administrators and teachers respond to their willingness to give and thus make them welcome.” Schools with heart are voluntary public schoolsones that rely on the benevolence of many people as well as public funding.School voluntarism is seen as a special bridge between primordial institutions (such as families) and modern institutions (such as public schools). Brown shows that the use of benevolence in schools offers a vision of how education may be changed. He presents some recommendations for policies that would alter the balance between public and private support for public education.Highly readable and thought-provoking, this book is of interest to all persons who are concerned about public schools and the children in them. They include policy makers, administrators, teachers, and parents.