Schools have new problems facing them every day, especially when it comes to finding the money for the resources to teach their students, like books and supplies. The different places that schools can turn to get more money for resources is the problem, because these places do not have the good education of the students as their first priority. Whether they are advertisers, marketing researchers or fundraising companies, their goal is to sell their product. Their presence in schools is unproductive and undermining to the education of students. The privatization of schools resulting from the No Child Left Behind Act has allowed too much non-education based instances into schools, which has been and will continue to be a large detriment to the children that it directly affects.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was instilled not to make the education system worse, but to improve it in a hope to close the gap between the different levels of achievement of students. The 4 Pillars of the Act; stronger accountability for results, more freedom for states and communities, proven education methods, and more choices for parents, give the education of children flexibility so that it can be as effective as possible. The act’s goal is to have all children make adequate yearly progress (AYP) thus allowing the school to make AYP requirements, which is determined by the schools standardized testing scores. If there is a failure by a school to make their AYP requirements five years in a row, the school is taken over by the state. (Overview) The stress that this requirement puts on the teachers and the school as a whole because of the level that they need to have each of the students at and, in many cases of schools, lack of money for resources makes this very difficult. Especially in schools that do lack these funds, it forces them to look elsewhere to get money to teach their students. Where the money comes from varies.
Schools have the responsibility to teach the students that pass through their walls all of the knowledge that they possibly can. When the students leave the school, they should be perfectly capable of being productive human beings in the real world. According to Newman, not only do schools have the responsibility of heightening student’s knowledge, they also “more subtly teach [kids] who they are and what they can expect from themselves in the future” (132) Teachers and the administration of schools need to teach children to be sure in themselves and how to shape their own unique identity. In a report about trends of commercialism in schools, “research has found that higher materialistic values are related to lower self-esteem, chronic physical symptoms, and higher rates of anxiety, depression and physical distress” (At Sea). Out side of school kids watch TV, play video games and look at magazines that are filled to the brim with advertisements thrown at them, trying to shape what they identify with and what products the want to buy. The school is supposed to be a place free from this bombardment, but because of the influx of corporations in schools, it is no longer a safe zone.
Fundraising in schools is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Gone is the high priority of spending as much time in the classroom learning as possible. Now is the time for creating little salesmen, and all for the name of raising money altruistically for their school. Already, there is so little time in the school day for teachers to get creative about the ways and what they teach because of the rigorous requirements placed by the state and federal government in testing, and now on top of that, teachers are constantly losing even more time for students to learn how best to sell items like discount cards, pencils, cookie dough and wrapping paper. Fundraisers “supposedly teach kids teamwork, business, and people skills, but the only lesson kids are guaranteed to learn is how to become cogs in the $4 billion-a-year commercial school-fundraising industry” and a parent involved in these fundraising activities realized after years of participating that the fundraising tactics using students are “coercive, exploitative, and economically discriminating, to the children and their families. Not to mention the fact that is was blatantly commercial” (Meeks). The only positive lesson that the students involved would gain from the school fundraising experience is that their education and learning is not as important as selling products.
The relationship between peers is probably the most influential on children, because “they have more access to children’s lives than just about anyone else does. Parents don’t usually see their kids at school. Teachers don’t usually see their kids at home. But peers see each other everywhere. Fundraising in schools and advertising in schools depends on this fact. In an effort to fit in, kids care a lot about what their peers think, and that is why when there are fundraisers carried out by kids, there is a sense of competition to be the best in the class, even when there isn’t necessarily a prize involved. This is perfect for these companies, because it means that even more products will be sold.
Sometimes, instead of fundraising as the main source of extra money coming into the school, in less affluent schools corporations will approach the school and offer money and curriculum and supplies in return for the opportunity to use the school in various ways. Schools are becoming almost 3-D billboards, where advertising space is leased out “in their hallways, on their buses and even on their book covers”. (Giroux 172) Like state before, school is no longer a safe haven of learning for students, they instead see posters on the walls of their hallways that promote certain companies, vending machines try to convince students to choose that product, and it is all at the expense of higher education. It is a common theme that involvement in schools by corporations shows disrespect for education. “Corporations give the school money, equipment or curricula for the right to use students to take taste tests, experiments with different products, or answer opinion polls” (Giroux 173). They give the appearance of trying to help the school, but they only care about their motives.
The school district I came from did not have largely influenced corporation involvement in the schools. Once middle school is reached, the fundraisers for sports teams start, and vending machines appear in the lunchroom. Not much extra money is needed for school supplies though. However, in a school I worked at in Trenton, it was clear to see how the school desperately needed some company to step in, and they would probably be more than fine with letting some learning time be lost to meet the needs of the corporation that gave them the items that they did. This school was also one that this is their last year to make AYP, and it really doesn’t look good, which will open the door for even more corporation involvement.
The No Child Left Behind Act, may have started in the hopes to really aid students in gaining the most knowledge that they possibly can, but it has opened the door to completely rip apart the important foundations of learning. Instead of the focus being on obtaining as much knowledge in as many different areas as possible, to become as successful as possible, the students are learning the most cunning ways to bleed money out of their neighbors and families to support the companies that are supposed to be supporting their education. When did selling cookie dough and wrapping paper become more important than learning the history of our country?
Work Cited
“At Sea in a Marketing-Saturated World: The Eleventh Annual Report of Schoolhouse Commercialism Trends: 2007-2008.” Commercialism in Education Research Unit. 2008. Education Public Interest Center. 28 May 2009.
Giroux, Henry A.” Kids For Sale: Corporate Culture and the Challenge of Public Schooling.” Stealing Innocence: Youth, Corporate Power and the Politics of Culture. New York: Palgrave, 2000 (171-175)
Newman, David. “Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality”. Identities and Inequalities. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005 (106-144)
Meeks, Elly Scholl. “Put an End to In-School fundraising.” Education Week. May 2009. 28 Mar 2009.
“Overveiw Four Pillars of NCLB.” US Department of Education. July 2004. 28 May 2009.
