Do American parents spend too much time volunteering at their kids’ schools? is the title of a recent article in Slate Magazine by Amanda Ripley.

I’m no fan of a lot of her writing on education issues, and this article provides more evidence about why I feel that way.

She frames her article as an “either/or” proposition, saying that American parents need to spend more time at home reading with their kids and less time volunteering at schools. It’s a false choice, and there’s no reason why parents can’t be encouraged to do both. And she weakens her case further by using obsessive Korean parents and a discredited charter academy as evidence to support her position.

Not a pretty picture….