outside the (toy) box

In preparation for my upcoming meeting with Thing 1’s preschool about Scholastic, I started sniffing out additional information.  I couldn’t find nearly as much as I would like on preschool commercialism, but then I was magically referred to Rebekah Cohen and voila, paydirt!  Cohen has a Master’s in Child Development from Tufts University (where she specialized in children and media) and formerly worked as a research assistant with Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.  Her Master’s research focused on (drumroll) commercialism in preschools.  She now lives and works in San Francisco.  Cohen was gracious enough to let me interview her a few days ago.  Her insights follow:

So, okay, tell us, how bad is commercialism in preschool? Read the complete Post.