Commercialism in classroom: Publisher defends non-book products as way to spark interest in reading

Scholastic Corp., the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books, has come under criticism from a children’s advocacy group for using its vast, venerable network of school-based book clubs to market toys and other non-educational items ranging from video games to lip gloss.
The world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, Scholastic earned nearly $337 million last year from the book clubs, which it inaugurated in 1948. The company estimates that three-quarters of U.S. elementary school teachers — and more than 2.2 million children — participate annually in the clubs.
Over the decades, the program has won praise for encouraging children to read by offering discounted books ordered through their teachers, who in turn can qualify for further deals on books and other classroom materials.
However, the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood — a national coalition of educators, health-care professionals and parents — launched a protest campaign Monday asserting that Scholastic has exploited its unique access to schools by marketing an array of non-book products in its monthly book club fliers.
Items pitched to elementary school students in the last 14 months include M&M’s Kart Racing Wii video game, an American Idol event planner, the SpongeBob SquarePants Monopoly computer game, lip gloss rings, Nintendo’s Baby Pals video game, Hannah Montana posters and the Spy Master Voice Disguiser.
The campaign said about one-third of the items for sale in Scholastic’s elementary and middle school book clubs either were not books or were books packaged with other items such as jewelry, toys and makeup. The group is running a e-mail campaign to urge Scholastic officials to make changes.
The campaign is the latest fight over exposing children to advertising and commercial products at school. Other criticism has been leveled against schools that offer students sodas or fast food, an in-school news channel that includes advertising and a company that provides radio programming with commercials in school buses.
Judy Newman, a Scholastic executive vice president who oversees the book clubs, defended the program and indicated it would not be changed in response to the protest. The toys and other non-book items were included in the fliers primarily to help spark student interest in the books, she said.
“We’re losing kids’ interest (in reading). We have to keep them engaged,” Newman said. “This (book club) model is 60 years old, and it has to stay relevant to do the work it does. To the extent we put in a few carefully selected non-book items, it’s to keep up the interest.”
ABOUT SCHOLASTIC
Scholastic operates in 15 countries, with annual revenue of $2.2 billion. Its latest annual report describes the school-based book clubs and book fairs as “core businesses.” The company operates a book fair unit in West Columbia.

1. What are your feelings on scholastic selling non-book items to chilcren in schools?
2. Is this ethical?
3. If you were a parent would this bother you?
4. If you were scholastic, would you change your item list?