The mandatory-voluntary PTA work reminds me of a college course I had (sociology). The professor was also a Scout mother and told us we'd be doing X hours of "

The mandatory-voluntary PTA work reminds me of a college course I had (sociology). The professor was also a Scout mother and told us we'd be doing X hours of "volunteer" work for her son's troop but it would be part of our grade for the course. As the first in my family to go to college, I was working multiple minimum-wage ($5.85/hr) part-time jobs on top of a full course load just to afford to eat and live. I wrote the professor a letter explaining that this "volunteer" work would be an undue hardship because literally every waking hour that I wasn't in school I was working, so these "volunteer" hours could only come at the expense of work hours and loss of income (which was already not making ends meet). Her response was that she didn't believe I couldn't spare X hours/week and wouldn't "bend the rules" for me - everyone had to volunteer. The exchange grew increasingly tense until I asked her how much was the activity worth? One letter grade. "Guess I'll be down a letter grade then." (It was a small university and required core course, so I couldn't just drop the class or take with a different professor.)