ABSTRACT
During the mid-1980s, I became acquainted with a number of public elementary schools rich in volunteers. Although I saw that the donation of volunteers’ time constituted a substantial resource for the schools, the existence of so many volunteers presented a paradox for me. My impressions of public education had led me to believe that its raison d’être was to create schools that did not depend much on their communities for support. Ostensibly, they could be independent of their settings and largely free of community constraints. Yet my exposure to these schools showed that volunteer parents contributed actively to programs in public schools and that administrators appeared to welcome them. Was this activity evidence of subversive action designed to undermine the tenets of public education? Or was something else at work? Were these school volunteers actually important or were they simply doing nice things, that is, making insignificant contributions? Were they, in a quiet way, adding something special to the life of their schools?
