Getting Involved at School - Watch D.O.G.S.

Transcript: Man: Are you guys ready?
Girls: We love Watch D.O.G.S.!
Craig: So ask any teacher in the world what one thing makes the biggest difference in the classroom and they will all tell you it’s not money, it’s not books. It’s parental involvement. My wife’s a first grade teacher. I know this. And we’re here at a school in north Georgia, we’re at Pickett’s Mill Elementary School to discover the story of Eric Shumacher. He’s a dad who got really, really involved in the school and it lit a fire of parental involvement and it’s made all the difference. He’s gotten attention nationally, he’s gotten attention from the PTA, he’s gotten attention from even other dads in the district who want to be a part of his Watch D.O.G.S. community. We’re here with Eric Snow, the national director of Watch D.O.G.S. and Keith Shumacher who really brought it to Pickett’s Mill elementary. Eric, I wanted to ask you, how did you get involved in Watch D.O.G.S. and tell me a little bit about the program in general.
Eric: I got involved in 1998. A year later the non-profit was born and it just took off.
Craig: OK. So speaking of taking off, since ’99, how many schools are you in? How many?
Eric: We finished the school year, this 2009-2010 school year, with 1,660 Watch D.O.G.S. schools in 39 states.
Craig: Oh my gosh.
Eric: And what that means is there was over 140,000 men nationwide that took a day off work, came in and volunteered at least one day in their child’s school.
Craig: Let’s talk to Keith for just a minute.
Keith: OK.
Craig: So you see this special on ABC News, what was it, three years ago?
Keith: I did.
Craig: You said, “I can do that,” right?
Keith: Well, and, the strange thing about it was that I had been looking for something like this. I had been involved, as Eric said, I’m a firefighter full time, and I have the schedule to be able to spend a lot of time at the school and one of the teachers approached me one day and she told me, she said, “You know, it’s just different when you’re the parent here.”
Sheila: I think kids love having their dad at their school. And they are so proud when that daddy walks in for the day.
Craig: Sure.
Sheila: They are excited to have their dad on the morning TV show. They’re excited to hear the dad tell who his children are. They just take a lot of pride in seeing that their dad is here and working in the building.
Jeri: When a dad is in the school, it’s something different about that. You know, they’re used to seeing moms in the schools but it’s something different to have the dad there. It’s like, you know, all of a sudden, “Wow,” you know, they just stand up. A dad is in ... you know, what mom says something you have to say it 100 times and so when a dad says it they do it automatically and so it’s good to have their presence in the school. And we’re going to do everything that we can to get all 28 of our schools involved.
Donna: We are seeing that. We are seeing more men coming into the school and being part of our child’s lives.
Lori: The watch D.O.G. program specifically in the Cobb county schools, which is part of the district that I represent, the last couple years especially has grown a number of schools and has encouraged a lot of dads to be involved.
Craig: There was immediate interest.
Keith: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. They jumped on board. We have a great community here.
James: I have to say what’s taken place here at Pickett’s Mill is my first time seeing dads being as immersed in what’s taking place in a school than I have before.
Allison: As you have heard before, Keith has been a phenomenal ambassador.
Craig: Yeah, he’s the rockstar, there’s no doubt about that.
Allison: And his passion has been contagious.
James: Any time you can get people from the community to come into your school, that’s reality for kids to be able to link what goes on in the classroom with the outside world and by being able to see parents, albeit moms or in this case dads, coming in, it’s real positive to what we’re all about in our classrooms.
Allison: And when I started at Pickett’s Mill and found out there was an opportunity for the fathers to get involved, I recruited my husband.
James: I think the big key to all of this is by seeing dads in the schools, when those same students go out into the community, other dads can say “Hey, I saw you at school today, you did a great job.” For youngsters that may not have the presence of a dad at home, those same youngsters bond with the fathers who are in our schools today. So it’s been a real positive in every aspect of the word.
Allison: And being a father, being a father figure for children who don’t have fathers, which is interesting because we do have some kids in this school who need a little bit of extra TLC. And it gives the fathers and those kids an opportunity to connect.
Keith: One of the key components of our program is the scheduling and the calendar, and that, it makes it so much easier for dads to understand what’s going on when they can look at a calendar, understand when they’re going to be here, look at a schedule. This is a 24-foot calendar that comes with the start-up kit, well, with every Watch D.O.G.S. program, and when we set our launch event, you know, we don’t have meetings, we have events, so guys just know that when you come out, it’s going to be an event, we’re going to get you in and out quickly. But the key is we’re going to feed you a little bit of pizza, let you spend the evening with your kids.
Sheila: They have kind of a date night with dad.
Craig: OK.
Sheila: And we signed up the men on that evening and we had a big calendar.
Keith: You know he can look at the calendar, come up and say, “OK, the 27th, I know there’s availability there, I’m going to sign up for it, I can put it in my BlackBerry or my iPhone or whatever it is that I’m going to be using.
Sheila: Last year was so fabulous. We had many days that we had three, four, sometimes five dads in our building.
Craig: OK.
Sheila: And, um, we gave them a schedule to follow.
Keith: And they’ll have that schedule ready for you when you walk in the door. It’s going to be right there and you’re off and you’re going to be working for that day, and believe me, you’re going to be working.
Sheila: What are the fallouts of it and so far I have found none. Um, I just feel like that it’s a very positive program, and so yes there’s been a lot of interest, and everywhere I can, every opportunity I have, I let people know that it has been successful.
Allison: We really do everything we can to partner with Watch D.O.G.S. to make their programs successful.
Craig: So Eric, thank you very much for joining us here. Um, can you tell us how dads can get involved with Watch D.O.G.S. if there isn’t a program in their school?
Eric: Absolutely. Uh, Watch D.O.G.S. is a fathering outreach program of the national center for fathering in Kansas City and our website is fathers.com/watchdogs.
Craig: Hopefully we can get more people like Keith and the guys at this school to get involved and we see the difference that dads make.
Eric: They make a difference and also they can call our 1-800 number, actually, it’s an 888 number, 888-540-DOGS.
Craig: Probably down at the bottom of the screen right now.
Eric: 3647.
Craig: (Laughs) Thank you very much Eric. We’ll see you next time on ManoftheHouse.com.
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Girls: We love Watch D.O.G.S.!