Scholastic urged to "put the book back in book clubs"
Shelley Svidal, ATA News
A 50-year-old classroom tradition has come under attack for marketing toys, trinkets and electronic media to children in the name of consumerism.
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood claims that one-third of the items in Scholastic’s Lucky (Grades 2–3) and Arrow (Grades 4–6) book club flyers in 2008 either were not books or were books packaged with other items, such as toys and jewellery. As a Scholastic aficionado who reserves the right to veto her eight-year-old daughter’s book club picks, I decided to examine this month’s Lucky and Arrow catalogues.
Featured on the front page of the Lucky catalogue is Pokémon: Test Your Sinnoh Smarts, billed as a collection of quizzes and trivia "for serious Pokémon fans only." The catalogue also features the Hannah Montana Poster Book—"Give your room star style! Twelve awesome Hannah Montana posters!"—and Scholastic’s Electronic Organizer—"Never forget a quiz again!"At the same time, the catalogue includes Socks by Newberry Award-winning author Beverly Cleary, Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad Are Friends and Frog and Toad Together, and Robert Munsch’s new story Down the Drain!
The Arrow catalogue contains a similar assortment of good reads and not-so-good pap. Alongside the Shel Silverstein Poetry Collection, Farley Mowat’s Owls in the Family and Lois Duncan’s Hotel for Dogs are the NHL Folder Kit, featuring a velvet folder, three posters and six markers; the Be Careful What You Wish For Pack, which comes with a star bracelet; and Inkheart and The Tale of Despereaux, both movie novelizations.
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood remains unrepentant. "It’s bad enough that so many of the books sold by Scholastic are de-facto promotions for media properties like High School Musical and SpongeBob. But there’s no justification for marketing an M&M videogame or lip gloss in elementary schools. Teachers should not be enlisted as sales agents for products that have little or no educational value and compete with books for children’s attention and families’ limited resources. If Scholastic wants to maintain their unique commercial access to young students, they need to do better."
I remember working at a public library in 1990 when a reporter popped in for reaction to then culture minister Doug Main’s suggestion that libraries stop using government funding to purchase entertainment materials, including comic books. "Children are better off reading comic books than not reading at all," I remember saying, and I would say the same thing today. For all its emphasis on toys, trinkets and electronic media, Scholastic gives students a window into the wonderful world of reading and gives schools the opportunity to obtain free books for their classrooms and libraries. Yes, Scholastic can and should do better, but parents, not teachers, are responsible for their children’s book club purchases, and if parents don’t want to expose their children to pap, then they shouldn’t cut the cheque.
Scholastic books subject of lobby effort
Founded in 2000, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is an American coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups, parents and other individuals devoted to limiting the impact of commercial culture on children. In 2008, following an 18-month campaign, the coalition convinced Scholastic to stop promoting the controversial and highly sexualized Bratz brand in schools.
If you’re a preschool, elementary, or middle school teacher, please visit www.commercialfreechildhood.org/scholastic to sign the petition.—Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (www.commercialfreechildhood.org)