May, 19 2009, 12:56pm EDT
Teachers to Scholastic: Don't Use Us to Market Toys, Make-up, and Brands to Children in School
"Stop enlisting teachers to sell toys, make-up, and brands to
students through book clubs." That's what more than 1,200 teachers
said in a
letter the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood sent to Scholastic,
Inc., the world's largest educational publishing company.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
"Stop enlisting teachers to sell toys, make-up, and brands to
students through book clubs." That's what more than 1,200 teachers
said in a
letter the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood sent to Scholastic,
Inc., the world's largest educational publishing company. CCFC sent the
letter, signed exclusively by teachers, after a review
of Scholastic's 2008 elementary and middle school Book Club flyers
found that one-third of the items for sale were either not books, like the
M&M Kart Racing Wii videogame, or were books packaged with other products,
such as lip gloss and jewelry.
"Anything that teachers hand out in the classroom carries their
implicit endorsement," said Dr. Susan Linn, CCFC's Director.
"Scholastic should not be exploiting teachers' influence with
students to sell toys and trinkets or to promote media properties, like Hannah Montana and SpongeBob SquarePants, to children in schools." Signatures were
collected online and at state and local meetings of the National Association
for the Education of Young Children.
Last February, CCFC forwarded over 5,000 complaints from parents to
Judy Newman, President of Scholastic Book Clubs. In response, she told The New York Times that the company works
with teachers "to make sure that items are O.K. to put out in their
classrooms." That over 1200 teachers signed on to CCFC's letter
shows that many believe the proliferation of branded and non-book items
marketed in the Book Clubs are not, in fact, "O.K." A number of
teachers felt strongly enough to include personal comments highlighting their
dissatisfaction with the commercialization of Scholastic's offerings.
"I
have noticed this gradual change over the last several years and I have been
concerned about it. I am sometimes embarrassed to send home a particular issue
with too many trashy choices. I feel this reflects on me as a teacher."
~Amie Buchman, K-1st Grade Teacher, Pierce School,
Brookline, MA
"...[I]n
recent years, I am finding many fewer books that I want to own or read to the
children...commercial stories, growing up too soon topics, and all sorts of
things that aren't books at all. So I have made very few purchases
in the past ten years and feel much less enthusiastic about giving [out] the
order forms..."
~Laurie Kleen, Preschool & Kindergarten Teacher, A
Growing Place Montessori School, St. Louis, MO
Although Scholastic's Book Clubs offer teachers the chance to
build their classroom libraries and students the chance to buy low-cost books,
teachers are looking elsewhere for these opportunities and refusing to distribute
Scholastic's flyers until they improve their selection:
"I've
ordered quality books from you for years, but stopped handing out the order
forms when I found that my students were primarily buying toys that it seemed
like I approved of!"
~Sarae Pacetta, Pre-K Teacher, Lee
Academy Pilot
School, Dorchester, MA
"I
stopped offering Scholastic Book Clubs 5 years ago because the overall quality
of the books offered had declined and because of the inclusion of Disney and
other brand toys and related books."
~Beth London, Pre-K Teacher, Poker Hill School, Underhill, VT
"Please
discontinue all non-book items from your book orders, web site, and book
fairs...Until this happens I'm boycotting Scholastic and looking for another
company for book orders."
~Larry Burt, 4th Grade Teacher, Roseway Heights
School, Portland, OR
"I
have long been troubled by the commercial nature of your offerings, and for
precisely that reason, have pretty much stopped distributing Scholastic
information to my classes. I loved Scholastic before all of the media
influence, and would happily return to distributing offerings to my class and
ordering myself if you returned to selling quality literature."
~Margo Ross, Kindergarten Teacher, Tierra
Pacifica Charter
School, Santa Cruz, CA
"The opportunity to market directly to children in schools is a
privilege, not a right," Dr. Linn added. "Teachers shouldn't
be enlisted as sales agents for products like Hannah Montana bracelets."
CCFC plans to continue to track Scholastic Book club offerings. One of
the more egregious recent findings was the Dairy Queen video game, DQ Tycoon, which appears in Scholastic's
June 2009 Arrow flyer.
Fairplay, formerly known as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, educates the public about commercialism's impact on kids' wellbeing and advocates for the end of child-targeted marketing. Fairplay organizes parents to hold corporations accountable for their marketing practices, advocates for policies to protect kids, and works with parents and professionals to reduce children's screen time.
LATEST NEWS
UN Warns of 'Catastrophic' Imminent Escalation in Sudan
Warring factions in North Darfur state must "avoid locating military installations within or near densely populated areas, including towns and camps for internally displaced people," said one U.N. official.
Apr 26, 2024
The United Nations' top humanitarian affairs officials on Friday called for an immediate deescalation of hostilities in Sudan, where rival factions in the military government have been fighting for a year and where an attack on the city of El Fasher is reportedly imminent.
About 800,000 people in the city, the capital of North Darfur state, are in "extreme and immediate danger," U.N. aid operations director, Edem Wosornu, told the U.N. Security Council earlier this week, as she reported that clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are nearing El Fasher.
Fighting between the two groups has intensified in recent weeks, forcibly displacing an estimated 40,000 people.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday that the security situation in North Darfur has left more than a dozen aid trucks with relief supplies for 122,000 people stranded in neighboring Northern state, unable to proceed into the only capital city in Darfur that is not controlled by RSF.
"A patchwork of armed actors, including the Darfur Joint Protection Forces, the SAF, and the RSF control different parts of the El Fasher area," Human Rights Watch reported this week. "Tense calm alternating with episodic fighting has prevailed for months."
Since April 14, when RSF began to push into El Fasher, at least 43 people—including women and children—have been killed due to fighting between the SAF and RSF.
"Civilians are trapped in the city, afraid of being killed should they attempt to flee," said Seif Magango, spokesperson for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Volker TĂĽrk. "This dire situation is compounded by a severe shortage of essential supplies as deliveries of commercial goods and humanitarian aid have been heavily constrained by the fighting, and delivery trucks are unable to freely transit through RSF-controlled territory."
The lack of humanitarian aid in North Darfur has pushed the state toward a famine, with one child dying of starvation every two hours, according to a February report by Doctors Without Borders.
In December, the U.S. State Department announced an $85 million sale of radar and other military equipment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which The New York Times reported last year has been covertly supporting the RSF.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) proposed a joint resolution to block arms sales to the UAE in January, in light of its support for the paramilitary group.
Omar was among several lawmakers who wrote to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week, urging them to "deliver urgently-needed humanitarian assistance" and to help end the hostilities.
Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied urged Americans on Friday to pressure lawmakers and the White House to take more action.
"There is a tiny window of opportunity for us to find a way to get the UAE... to make the RSF to stop in their tracks," said Abdel-Magied. "Maybe there's a way that we can avoid this massacre."
OCHA called on the warring parties to "take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations."
"They must, to the extent possible, avoid locating military installations within or near densely populated areas, including towns and camps for internally displaced people," said the office. "It is also imperative that the parties allow safe passage for civilians to leave El Fasher for safer areas."
Keep ReadingShow Less
With US Workers on the March, Southern States Take Aim at Unions
GOP leaders in the region are "truly astonished that workers might not trust their corporate overlords with their working conditions, pay, health, and retirement," said one critic.
Apr 26, 2024
Since six Southern Republican governors last week showed "how scared they are" of the United Auto Workers' U.S. organizing drive, Tennessee Volkswagen employees have voted to join the UAW while GOP policymakers across the region have ramped up attacks on unions.
The UAW launched "the largest organizing drive in modern American history" after securing improved contracts last year with a strike targeting the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. The ongoing campaign led to the "landslide" victory in Chattanooga last week, which union president Shawn Fain pointed to as proof that "you can't win in the South" isn't true.
The Tennessee win "is breaking the brains of Republicans in that region. They're truly astonished that workers might not trust their corporate overlords with their working conditions, pay, health, and retirement," Thom Hartmann wrote in a Friday opinion piece.
"The problem for Republicans is that unions represent a form of democracy in the workplace, and the GOP hates democracy as a matter of principle."
"The problem for Republicans is that unions represent a form of democracy in the workplace, and the GOP hates democracy as a matter of principle," he argued. "Republicans appear committed to politically dying on a number of hills that time has passed by. Their commitment to gutting voting rolls and restricting voting rights, their obsession with women’s reproductive abilities, and their hatred of regulations and democracy in the workplace are increasingly seen by average American voters as out-of-touch and out-of-date."
Just before voting began in Chattanooga, GOP Govs. Kay Ivey of Alabama, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and Greg Abbott of Texas claimed that "unionization would certainly put our states' jobs in jeopardy" and the UAW is "making big promises to our constituents that they can't deliver on."
The next nationally watched UAW vote is scheduled for May 13-17 at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama.
"Workers at our plant are ready for this moment," Mercedes employee Jeremy Kimbrell said last week. "We are ready to vote yes because we are ready to win our fair share. We are going to end the Alabama discount and replace it with what our state actually needs. Workers sticking together and sticking by our community."
As workers gear up for the election, the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 72-30 for a bill that would withhold future economic incentive money from companies that voluntarily recognize unions rather than holding secret ballots. The state Senate previously passed a version of the legislation but now must consider it with the lower chamber's amendments.
The Associated Pressnoted that "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed similar legislation on Monday" and that Tennessee already has one on the books.
With his signature on Senate Bill 362, "Kemp's aim is to thwart future organizing attempts by workers at automotive plants in Georgia, such as those operated by Hyundai Motor Group," according toThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As the newspaper detailed:
Georgia has been a right-to-work state since 1947, when Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, allowing workers to refuse to join a union or pay dues, even though they may benefit from contracts negotiated by a union with their employer. Just 5.4% of workers in the state belonged to a union in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, protects the right for workers to form a union and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.
The new Georgia law is expected to be challenged in court, labor experts have said.
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su told the AP on Thursday that she is not sure if the department will challenge the laws, given the National Labor Relations Board's responsibilities, but she stressed that "there are federal standards beneath which no worker should have to live and work."
In terms of joining a union, "that choice belongs to the worker, free from intervention, either by the employer or by politicians, free from retaliation and threats," Su said. "And what we are seeing is that workers who were thought to be too vulnerable to assert that right are doing it, and they're doing it here in the South."
The U.S. labor chief also slammed "unacceptable" union-busting efforts by companies and suggested that protecting the right to unionize is part of President Joe Biden's "promise to center workers in the economy."
"He has said he's the most pro-worker, pro-union president in history, and we are going to make good on that promise. And that includes making sure that workers have the right to join a union," Su said of the president.
Biden's commitment to workers and unionizing rights has caught the attention of GOP leaders. The governors' joint statement nodded to the UAW's January endorsement of the president, who is seeking reelection in November, and South Carolina's leader attacked the administration earlier this year.
During his January State of the State speech, McMaster declared that "we will not let our state's economy suffer or become collateral damage as labor unions seek to consume new jobs and conscript new dues-paying members. And we will not allow the Biden administration's pro-union policies to chip away at South Carolina's sovereign interests. We will fight. All the way to the gates of hell. And we will win."
News From the Statesreported Friday that "of all the foreign-owned automakers in South Carolina, BMW would be the most likely mark in the near term if enough of its workers show interest. The massive plant near Greer—the manufacturer's only U.S. production facility—employs some 11,000 people, twice the number of workers at Volkswagen in Tennessee and Mercedes in Alabama. It has operated in the Upstate for nearly 30 years and is in the process of adding electric vehicle lines."
However, a UAW spokesperson told the outlet that they don't yet have the numbers for the BMW and Volvo facilities in the state, and Marick Masters, a Wayne State University professor who studies the union, said: "I don't think they're writing anybody off but they know the history of unionization. And I would say South Carolina is a very inhospitable place for unions."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Leaked USAID Document Concludes Israel Impeded Gaza Aid
"Biden is breaking the law and defying his own agencies to fund Israeli war crimes," said one observer.
Apr 26, 2024
Officials at the United States Agency for International Development concluded in a confidential memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is violating a White House directive by blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip during its ongoing genocidal assault on the Palestinian enclave, according to a report published Friday.
Devex's Colum Lynch reported that the confidential communication—entitled Famine Inevitable, Changes Could Reduce But Not Stop Widespread Civilian Deaths—states that USAID "assesses the government of Israel (GOI) does not currently demonstrate necessary compliance" with a February 8 White House memo requiring the secretary of state to obtain assurances from governments receiving U.S. military aid that such assistance is used in compliance with human rights law.
The USAID memo raises "serious concerns that the killing of nearly 32,000 people, of which the GOI itself assesses roughly two-thirds are civilians, may well amount to a violation of the international humanitarian law." That figure is now over 34,300 deaths, with at least 77,293 people injured and over 11,000 others missing and presumed buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings.
The document states that the "deterioration of food security and nutrition in Gaza is unprecedented in modern history, exponentially outpacing in six months the long-term declines that led to the only other two famine declarations in the 21st century: Somalia (2011) and South Sudan (2017)."
"Adequate health, nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene... an immediate cessation of hostilities, and sustained humanitarian access will be required," the memo continues. "Absent these conditions, all available evidence indicates rising acute food insecurity, malnutrition, and disease will lead to a rapid increase in non-trauma deaths, particularly among women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities."
During congressional testimony earlier this month, USAID Administrator Samantha Power answered in the affirmative when U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) asked whether "famine is already occurring" in Gaza.
"Yes," she said. "In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to October 7 was almost zero, and it is now one in three—one in three kids."
Biden's February directive states that "the recipient country will facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance."
Not only has Israel blocked aid from entering Gaza as children there die of malnutrition and dehydration and millions teeter on the brink of starvation, Israeli troops have attacked Palestinian and international humanitarian workers attempting to deliver aid and desperate Gazans trying to receive it.
Observers say these attacks—which include the infamous " Flour Massacre" and the drone strikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers—were deliberate, which Israel denies.
The blocking of humanitarian aid is a key component of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and supported by more than 30 nations. On January 26, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling that found Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and ordered it to prevent future genocidal acts. Critics argue Israel has ignored the order.
According to Lynch:
The paper was cleared by 10 USAID officials, underscoring its widespread backing of the findings. But Sonali Korde, the agency's deputy assistant administrator and head of the Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, signed off on the document with the phrase INFO, bureaucratic shorthand for passing it up the chain of command without committing to its conclusions. Blinken is required to formally certify to Congress in the coming weeks whether Israel complies with the White House determination.
Last month, the Biden administration
said that Israel's use of U.S.-supplied weapons complies with international law, an assessment lambasted by many observers including Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer, who called it "absolutely scandalous."
Palestinian and human rights advocates and more than two dozen congressional Democrats have challenged the Biden administration's claim that Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons in compliance with domestic and international law, pointing to the use of 2,000-pound bombs—which can wipe out an entire city block—in densely populated areas and other potentially illegal actions. In December, Biden acknowledged that Israel's bombing was "indiscriminate."
Critics including progressive members of Congress have called for an arms embargo on Israel. However, Biden this week signed the biggest-ever U.S. aid package for Israel and has
repeatedly bypassed Congress to fast-track armed assistance to the key ally—which already receives nearly $4 billion in U.S. military aid annually. The Biden administration has also quietly approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular