Should Scholastic Book Clubs Be Banned From Schools?
Posted: Thursday, June 11, 2009
by Stephany Springer
We all remember bringing home the Scholastic Book Club order form with anticipation that our mom just might say yes to ordering something.
I remember as a kid, it was the coolest to order from because they had all the popular books at the time. They also had the coolest posters. I had Kirk Cameron plastered on my wall with a lucky purchase at the book fair. They always ran out of the posters first.
According to USA Today, " Some 1,262 teachers have signed a petition by consumer group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood asking Scholastic to stop enlisting teachers to sell toys to students."
The teachers claim that Scholastic is taking advantage of their placement in schools to market and make money off of unsuspecting kids.
" The watchdog group says one third of the items sold in Scholastic's 2008 elementary and middle-school catalogs were either not books or books packaged with other non-book items," in USA Today. "Besides toys, non-book items sold include stickers, science activity kits, math brain teasers, electronic dictionaries and audiobooks."
Scholastic has been selling books for over 60 years. They are the sole publisher of the Harry Potter series in the United States.
As a teacher and a parent, I can understand the concerns of this group. However, I am not sure it would not be more detrimental to ban Scholastic from the schools entirely.
Personally, I believe they do have a lot of toys. Scholastic claims that they use the toys as incentives to get children reading. My son's first year of school he begged for money to go to the book fair held in the library. We sent ten dollars. We were shocked to see what he bought. He did not purchase one book. He brought home a Spiderman picture in a shiny gold frame, a pencil and a little ceramic figurine for his sister. He was so proud of his buys and ended up crying when we lost it.
Needless to say, after kindergarten, he was monitored. I think that is the solution. Don't boycott a company whose sole purpose is to get kids to buy books. So they offer toys too? If it gets the kids inside looking at books, then what harm is really done. It is our jobs as parents to say, why don't you choose this book.
As a teacher, I am thankful for Scholastic. They still are publishing books at a time when that industry is failing. They have done what is necessary to survive. They also offer incentives to teachers to earn books and products for the classroom that if I bought them personally it would damage my pocketbook.
One teacher's complaint in USA Today is that there is too much branding citing that they are selling books about Hannah Montanna. As a teacher, I know not all kids love to read. Why not give them something that they will read?
Feel free to leave your thoughts on the matter in the comment section below. Can you imagine school without Scholastic?
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)I agree that these are inviting props fro kids to read but as they are culturally banal (soft sex of hannah montana) they contribute to the gradual dumbing down of america
This raises an interesting question. Why does Scholastic have a monopoly on selling books and merchandise to our kids? My kids go to a parochial school, and I am surprised that there are no publishers pushing catalogs of religious or other specialty books.Yes, I have wondered about this same question. My daughter in a 3rd/4th grade classroom brought home a flyer that included the book "The Face on the Milk Carton", and it was labeled as "for mature readers / contains mature content". So, why was that being marketed to 8-9 year-old kids? I also am surprised that there are no religious publishers seeing this void in the market.
In the original blog post, Stephany states: "Don't boycott a company whose sole purpose is to get kids to buy books." Hmmm. Remind me again why they sell so much toys / jewelry when their "only purpose" is to get kids to buy books? Why are my children being sold anything in school as a captive audience? Trust me, we have a school library, we have public libraries. I'm not sure how much Scholastic is helping the kids who are not reading at grade level.
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