Hmmm. I am summoning the powers of teh internets to help me strategize.
My daughter goes to a wonderful, wonderful preschool that impresses me every day. The profoundly qualified and committed teachers, the curriculum, the director, the families - it’s a place that I feel great about. Not only do they provide a rich setting and ample resources for social and intellectual development, they are also very progressive and deal brilliantly with issues of diversity - racial and ethnic, class, gender, ability, family structure etc etc.
The only complaint I have is that they currently participate in the Scholastic books program. This is where you say to yourself - Scholastic books? You have a problem with Scholastic books - are you out of your mind? Get a life, lady. WHY?
Because an increasing amount of the material offered through this in-school program is advertising. In this month’s circular alone, you can find “books” featuring Tonka trucks, Transformers, Barbie, Care Bears, Dora, Disney’s Cars, Diego, Arthur, Strawberry Shortcake, the #@!&% Disney Princesses, SpongeBob, Curious George, Spiderman, Hot Wheels…etc. This company that established a wholesome name selling the joys of reading, now makes a living selling access to the youth audience.
I’m not out of my mind. For Pete’s sake, Scholastic’s own materials refer to teachers as the “lynchpin of marketing in the classroom.”
The Scholastic approach upsets me for many reasons:
- Because all in school marketingcapitalizes (literally) on a captive audience and short circuits parental decision making. At home I can choose not to allow my child to watch TV to keep her from seeing advertising, but I don’t get the choice when the marketing happens in the classroom.
- Because this advertising benefits not only from the halo of the Scholastic name, it gets added credence because it comes from educators — giving the material a stamp of approval that students and parents respect. Scholastic knows and exploits this. From their own website:
“Scholastic 6 & Under Custom Marketing reaches parents childcare centers, preschools and kindergartens. The time between 0-6 years old is when parents are most involved with their children’s daily activities. Companies can reach these parents through an educational and creative approach, while associating themselves with a brand that resonates even more profoundly. And when working with Scholastic, the most trusted brand in learning, the message achieves extra credibility with parents.”
- Because not only is this a shitload of advertising, but most of the advertised products also have media tie-ins (a double whammy in my book, given what we know about television and kids’ lives), and some are also riddled with rigid gender stereotypes (yep, that’s the trifecta). Advertising Barbie to my child in school? Not okay with me. No Bratz either, please (yes, they advertise Bratz).
- It also supports shopping /consumerism and encourages kids to judge themselves based on what they have instead of who they are and how they behave — who gets what book (with which free backpack/toy/bracelet) matters on delivery day when you are 5 years old!
- And…perhaps the most unsettling part of this for me is that this advertising is completely under the radar, sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. The children have no idea that they are a target market, and frankly, neither do most parents, and why should they given the trusted source? This is unseemly.
So, I think there are some good reasons to oppose Scholastic, or at least to oppose Scholastic in schools as it currently exists. And, I’m not alone.
So, I contacted my daughter’s preschool and asked if we could discuss Scholastic and being the wonderful school that it is, the director took my concern very seriously and now I have a meeting scheduled with the director and a teacher from each classroom on this issue. They are also concerned with marketing in schools, and don’t think I’m completely out of my mind, but as educators they rightly value Scholastic because it brings low cost books into the center, which is economically quite diverse.
So, it is incumbent on me to provide some viable alternatives. What ideas do you have? CCFC has a nice pdf on having commercial free book fairs, that’s a great start. What else? Or is there a way the program could be used, but operate differently?
Scholastic isn’t a complete villain, don’t get me wrong. I want to kiss them all over for making WordGirl and Magic School Bus. BUT, I want them to cut this out! Quit exploiting my kid. Get back to instilling a love of reading — not love of McDonalds or a love of TV… Scholastic (I know you visited my blog 16 times last month, so I assume you are here now), I’m talking to you, shape up!
Marjorie
October 24, 2007 | 10:48 am1
No insightful comment–just:
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!
And what a preschool you have! Beautiful.
Two Knives
October 24, 2007 | 12:13 pm2
Hey Mom, do they only do the monthly circulars? Or do they come in and sponsor a book fair too?
We get the circulars. “Hey Parents, The More You Buy the More FREE BOOKS for Your Child’s Classroom!” Our circular rule is: we won’t buy books with characters from movies or TV. Or books with “extras” like the sparkly Dora necklace or horse action set.
To be honest, the circular has never bothered me. Until now, of course, thanks.
This is what our K-8 public school does for their book fair: everyone donates their used books (adult and children’s books). Volunteers set them up by category. Books sell for 50 cents to a dollar (no more). Money goes back to the school. It’s held over the dinner hour so we sell pizza, apples, and soda. The kids’ jazz band plays for a bit.
I love this event for so many reasons: we clear out our books to make room for all the new ones we buy, we’re recycling, the kids are all together looking through, reading, and talking about books! It’s a tad messier than a slick scholastic sale but I like it that way.
P.S. I love how companies can just declare that they are the “most (adjective) brand in (market segment).”
Academama
October 24, 2007 | 3:42 pm3
You know, I was really under the impression that the frenzy associated with book delivery day had passed. That is, I remember how jealous I was when other elementary school classmates scooped up their stacks of nice, shiny new books every third Friday. But as my daughter has gone through K, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades, it really hasn’t been that big of a deal. Maybe it’s because she already has TONS of books at home (her aunt is a school teacher), maybe it’s because she never mentions the phenomenon, or maybe it’s that she’s in a school where most of the kids probably have parents who’ve provided them with shelves and shelves of the latest Bonus Pack of Books and Toys. I don’t know…
Her school has a book fair, but I believe it too is sponsored by Scholastic. And despite the “good” books it has to offer, it’s still run amok with the “Pre-Packaged” literary product sets (Junie B. Jones with a Christmas doll kind of thing).
One of the things I’ve wondered, and I don’t know if this is a viable alternative, is why teachers don’t circulate lists of the children’s book that have won awards or are consistently on the critic’s choice lists. It’s easy to simply ask them to give out the Scholastic circulars on an “Ask and ye shall receive” basis. But, this doesn’t solve the problem of having knowledge of and affordable access to the non-commercialized “good” books. This is where I think the 18th c. idea of a circulating library would work well. Parents can purchase an affordable “subscription,” choose from a quality list, yet not have the problem of their young child wandering aimlessly in the school library looking for the ONE copy of Where the Red Fern Grows. Teachers, or a committee of teachers and parents, could create a set criteria for their selections and purchase more than one copy of books that are popular, and each class/grade could have their own collection.
Or, maybe this is completely unrealistic…I’m not thinking clearly today.
mom
October 24, 2007 | 9:13 pm4
Academama - Yes, I remember the frenzy and, in fact, remember this issue touching MY life — not advertising, but the “toys” — I always begged for the kitten poster and my lousy parents would “only” buy books — and the stupid thing is I LOVED BOOKS, but somehow with the posters nearby, the books seemed a disappointing consolation prize.
TK - we just have the monthly - no fair, this is why the CCFC materials aren’t really helping me. I’m trying to get creative - maybe an annual used book collection/sale is a good idea. Thanks.
and Marjorie - yes, we are so lucky. Imagine how many parental “concerns” the director is faced with and this is not exactly a bread and butter issue, but yet, she took it seriously and is open to brainstorming. When Thing 1 starts public school next year, I’m in for one ruuuuuude awakening.
Midodok
October 25, 2007 | 1:05 am5
How interesting! I would have never even thought about this issue. I think as a kid, I didn’t even make distinctions between book characters and television characters. Too me, they were all just cartoon characters. In fact, the book characters that were more like television characters were even better.
Books and television, do you think both are just a form of consumerism now?
What do you think about characters from books that turn into television/film characters later (i.e. Harry Potter, Arthur, Bernstein Bears).
Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting! I just updated it.
The Secret Ingredient
October 25, 2007 | 7:54 pm6
I just had a very similar, equally ANNOYING experience. My oldest daughter, who just started kindergarten, came home the other day with a “wish list” of books she wanted from the school’s Scholastic Book Fair. What they did was brought the kids to the fair with a printed “wish list” in hand, just beckoning for the empty lines be filled up. Then, they had older students at each table, who would write in the names and prices of the books the kids reacted too with “ooos’ and “ahhhs”. To me, this is just as bad as the credit card companies setting up tables in college dining halls with fun hats, shirts, and water bottles luring the student into signing up for a (potentially very damaging) credit line.
This was all bad enough—-but of the 10 books my daughter “selected”, 9 of them were licensed-books like Dora, Strawberry Shortcake, Disney princesses, and Barbie. I wanted to SCREAM. She came home and just assumed that she would be getting all these books simply because they were written on this wish list. Naturally, I had to have a little chat with her about that—-but also plan on speaking to the principal about my five year old being force-fed consumerism at school, of all places!!!! I COULD SCREAM!!!!!
mom
October 25, 2007 | 8:52 pm7
OMG Secret Ingredient. My head would (will, next year) explode! When you talk to the principal you should take the CCFC advertising free book fairs info in hand, it is tailor made for this circumstance.
The Not Quite Crunchy Parent
October 26, 2007 | 8:50 am8
This has been bothering me lately too. Fortunately we only get a flyer and do not have a fair. I’ve taken to running off with the flyer and filling in the lines to get books I like. (I just ordered a great collection of Osbourne reference books.) I don’t know how long this is going to work though since he does see other children walking out of school clutching their Spiderman books.
To some extent I’m OK with an occasional character book. I try to focus on my primary concern (Why he doesn’t watch TV or see most mainstream movies and go shopping with me at Toys R us or other highly commercialized toy stores) which is, I want CONTROL over how I raise my child. By keeping him away, to a large extent from the marketing message, I maintain influence over him and can guide his choices rather than have some other uninformed on child development, marketing person (like I used to be) telling him what he wants.
That said, I do allow him an occasional character book or a fairly innocuous toy ( Pooh not Power Rangers)…OK - I got off topic….
Back to the book fairs…I noticed on the Campaign for a commercial free Childhood site some information for setting up non scholastic book fairs. we did this with an independent bookstore near my DS’s preschool and it was great. It’s worthwhile pursuing!
I’m done…you can have your blog back
Sorry for being so wordy
Two Knives
October 26, 2007 | 10:25 am9
Secret Ingredient: That is appalling. You’d have to scrape my brains off the walls of the principal’s office. Would love to hear what happens.
coolbeans
November 3, 2007 | 11:40 pm10
I’m not a Scholastic representative. I’m just a mom who likes book fairs.
I’ve printed out those wish lists kids fill out. My motivation was to promote our fundraiser. It’s also an opportunity for teachers to show kids the books they like. Scholastic book fairs are simple and impressive fundraisers that put books in classrooms or generate income for our school. For a private school trying to maintain an up-to-date library, Scholastic can be a great resource.
That said, I wish they wouldn’t send the junk. I wish they wouldn’t include so many commercial characters and product tie-ins. At our fair, we don’t put the junk on display and we pull books we don’t want to profit from. I don’t buy it from the order forms, either. I don’t mind saying no and dealing with my kids’ disappointment once a year at book fair time. I do mind having to deal with it every couple of weeks.
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