Why aren’t parents enraged when schools invite corporations to present plays and organize field trips for students at public schools?
This is one of the most insane things I’ve heard about. Schools throughout the United States are inviting corporations to pay for field trips and even to give “dramatic presentations” to students to get their corporate messages across to a captive audience in an “uncluttered” environment.
So, are these generous corporations sending children to museums and art galleries and theatres?
No. They are sending your children to Toys R Us and Petco and Saturn dealerships..
Isn’t this an insult to your intelligence? I mean, they are not even pretending to attach any real educational value to these excursions. Toys R Us, for god’s sake!
At Petco, the hapless students are presented with coupons entitling them to free goldfish. Not a free goldfish — a coupon. They have to blackmail their parents into returning to the store to redeem the coupons. This is allowed? This is legal? Don’t any parents care about this kind of crass exploitation of their children’s minds? Don’t they find it annoying to have two-bit hucksters in the classroom instead of a teacher?
They are seeing plays designed to teach children the virtues of consumption, the environmental friendliness of energy companies, and how wonderful it is to buy things.
The word “uncluttered” comes from Tom Harris, vice president of sales and marketing for “The National Theatre for Children” which basically presents advertising to children disguised as entertainment, and with the informed consent and complicity of principals and school boards.
Mr. Harris says it’s easy to dupe principals into accepting commercial intrusion, though he wouldn’t use the word “dupe”. Apparently, 95% of school boards are clueless enough to allow it.
The word “uncluttered” is chilling. In other words, the one environment in which children are not yet assaulted and bombarded with continuous advertising has opened the gates. The other chilling word he uses is “captive”. The children have no choice. They have to be in school. The parents have no choice– they have to send their children– it’s the law.
Was there ever a more flagrant expression of government intrusion into private lives than this?
This is as close as it gets to the government actually ordering its citizens to consume. This is the government actively promoting the gospel of conspicuous consumption. This is not free enterprise. This is corporate fascism. The minds and thoughts of the young must be turned to the “correct” attitude.
You don’t believe the National Theatre for Children is engaged in sheer propaganda? Read this description, from their website, of one of their programs: In “Mission: It’s Possible,” a program favored by Wisconsin Gas, patriotic Professor Dabney Wabney is assigned by the government to produce a fuel that is plentiful, clean, and safe. After extensive research and the help of friends and colleagues, she discovers that there is no need to invent this elusive fuel because it already exists – natural gas. The show’s plot also explains where natural gas is found, how it is transported into people’s homes and why it is considered kind to the environment.
Are the children really learning about the environment and energy efficiency? Or about what a great, environmentally friendly, kid-loving corporation Wisconsin Gas is? Can’t wait to see an Enron or Monsanto-sponsored production! Just imagine what children can be taught about genetically modified foods and nuclear power plants!
Another production, conspicuously sponsored by Dole Food Co., promotes the virtues of eating fresh fruits and vegetables– and provides the children with coupons for Dole products.
Other productions, to be fair, try to discourage the children from smoking and promote environmental concerns. These are the Trojan Horses of this scam, usually sponsored by municipal water and waste departments
Even the tobacco companies recognize that it is a political necessity for them to pretend to want to discourage children from smoking.
Shoprite and United HealthCare are sponsors. Sponsors pay up to $1,000 per performance at elementary schools, or $10,000 per week at middle schools.
The National Theatre For Children actively promotes itself as a venue for corporate sponsors to get their messages to school children, with subtlety and tact, of course, but no less effectiveness.
As if corporate sponsorship of school outings and theatrical presentations wasn’t stupid enough, some school boards have prohibited trips to places of real educational value because of “security concerns”. Presumably, they are thinking that Osama Bin Laden is still out there and plotting right now to attack a group of American school children on a field trip to the Smithsonian.
I’m sorry if this offends anybody, but it has to be said that these people are either insanely paranoid or monumentally stupid or, more likely both..