Giving Kids The Business: The Commercialization Of America's SchoolsGiving Kids the Business exposes the ways in which corporate America is turning schools into profit centers, the curriculum into an advertising vehicle, and children into a cash crop. Learn how market-oriented school reforms take money out of your pocket and lower the quality of public education. This book sounds the alarm over schools being used by marketers to pitch their products to our nations children. }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 childs teacher shows a videotape that explains that the Valdez oil spill wasnt 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 Americas 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. } 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 childs teacher shows a videotape that explains that the Valdez oil spill wasnt 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 Americas children.With political races, legislative issues, and judicial challenges regarding education reform from Massachusetts to California, this book will explain whats behind the headlines in every state. |
Contents
1 Marching As If to War | 1 |
2 And Now a Word from Our Sponsor | 21 |
3 HighTech Hucksters Go to School | 53 |
Follow the Yellow Brick Road | 77 |
A False Choice | 117 |
The Smiling Face of Disinvestment | 151 |
7 What the Market Cant Provide | 169 |
Appendix | 185 |
Notes | 191 |
About the Book and Author | 217 |
Index | 219 |
Other editions - View all
Giving Kids The Business: The Commercialization Of America's Schools Alex Molnar Limited preview - 2018 |
Giving Kids The Business: The Commercialization Of America's Schools Alex Molnar No preview available - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
Advertising Age African American Alexander American School Association Baltimore Sun Bradley Foundation California Catholic Channel One's charter school charter school law Choice Program Chris Whittle claim classroom commercial conservative Consumers Union corporate cost create curriculum EAI's economic Edison Project educa education reform federal firms for-profit schools funds governor Gushers Hartford high-tech Ibid idea improve industry Institute investors issue K-III Kids Lamar Alexander legislation Lifetime Learning materials ment million Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee's November partnerships percent Pizza Hut political poor president private school vouchers problems profit promote public education public school system religious schools Research result rhetoric school board School Choice school districts school reform social spending sponsored story superintendent teachers teaching Tennessee Tesseract tion voucher plan Wall Street Journal Whittle Communications Whittle's Wisconsin workers York