As far as parents volunteering, I have no opinion. It was helpful to me when my son was in preschool to see how the program was taught, but I don't volunteer much now except the occasional field trip.

Tangent, but where I live, it seems that priorities are skewed. It is not unusual to hear of kids in three competitive sports in one season, during the school year. Doing the math, it shows that the child literally has hours of practice or games six, even seven days a week. For families with two or more children there are after-school activities scheduled every blessed day-- with kids attending their own and their sibling's activities. Where is the study time, play time, and academic emphasis? It's maddening not to give in to the pressure of feeling like my DS has to play several sports to fit in and make friends.