Giving Kids The Business: The Commercialization Of America's Schools

The commercialization of public education is upon us. With much fanfare and plenty of controversy, plans to cash in on our public schools are popping up all over the country. Educator and social commentator Alex Molnar has written the first book to both document the commercial invasion of public education and explain its alarming consequences.Imagine that your son is given a "Gushers" fruit snack, told to burst it between his teeth, and asked by his teacher to compare the sensation to a geothermic eruption (compliments of General Mills). Imagine your daughter being taught a lesson about self-esteem by being asked to think about "good hair days" and "bad hair days" (compliments of Revlon.) Imagine that to cap off a day of "world class" learning, your child's teacher shows a videotape that explains that the Valdez oil spill wasn't so bad after all (compliments of Exxon). Giving Kids the Business explains why hot-button proposals like Channel One, an advertising-riddled television program for schools; for-profit public schools run by companies such as the Edison Project and Education Alternatives, Inc.; taxpayer-financed vouchers for private schools; and the relentless interference of corporations in the school curriculum spell trouble for America's future. Anyone curious about how schools are being turned into marketing vehicles, how education is being recast as a commercial transaction, and how children are being cultivated as a cash crop will want to read Giving Kids the Business.