Garnering Knowledge for Teaching

This conversation comes from yesterday’s New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/books/10scho.html?_r=1

Essentially Scholastic is being taken to task for selling trinkets and non-educational items alonside its offerings of books at fantastic prices.  I am divided as to how I feel about this issue.

First, as my teacher education students know, I am a HUGE fan of Scholastic.  I have so many of those red and white boxes scattered in my basement holding books, letters and so forth (reuse!)  I love Scholastic because they make books financially accessible for both students and teachers.  Without this company I would never have been able to build my initial personal teaching library of over 2000 books (some of which I gave to a dear friend entering teaching when I moved for grad school.)  Using both bonus points and my own money I was able to create a diverse library that was able to morph with whatever grade/age level I was teaching in a particular year.  I had beautiful books, thoughtful books, challenging books, and sometimes a few frivolous books (such as the Simpson’s Christmas Book).  My world of books was due to the opportunities a Scholastic order form could provide.

Additionally, Scholastic has played a key role in the publication of childrens’ and adolescent literature.  Without them we would have no Harry Potter, or Series of Unfortunate Events.  There are creative avenues being explored for multicultural literature and also literature aimed at boys.  Scholastic sponsors these efforts and brings them into our classrooms.  Think about it, Goosebumps were not brilliant pieces of literature, but they got kids reading (especially boys) and frankly, one of our issues is getting books into the hands of children voluntarily. Scholastic deserves much praise for making the American classroom a literate place full of words.

That being said, I do understand the trepidation being felt by those examining just what it is that Scholastic offers every month.  I have found that the more recent book order forms (from the last couple of years) have been heavy with the toys and trinkets.  I often question the appropriateness of a child taking her book money and buying a little charm bracelet with a notebook too small to write in with it.  I know Scholastic is meeting some demand, kids love little trinkets, but is it also trying to make up a profit margin with these toys?  There seem to be more and more of them with each month’s offerings.

It is not that I am opposed to kids having the opportunity to spend money on the trinkets, but really Scholastic, don’t we want them buying books?  They can get a trinket at Walgreens or KMart, but have you seen the book selections (not to mention the prices) there?  It’s horrible.  I am also concerned that as the trinket selection grows, the opportunity to discover a really fine book or get lost in a story diminishes.  When you get down to it, a good portion of the books available through Scholastic are children’s pulp (good for practicing skills but not good literature.)  I fear that the pulp and trinkets will soon outnumber the beautiful pieces that I have always relied on Scholastic to obtain.

However, since Scholastic is a corporation with the intent to make a profit, I think the trinkets are here to stay.  It seems to me that the way to tackle this problem is in the classroom.  Encourage parents to look at the order form and approve the books their children are ordering instead of simply giving out cash for whatever because it’s an “educational vendor.”  Also teachers in classrooms can encourage students who buy books to be savvy readers and consumers of literature.  Can the classroom culture be one that rewards students for their intellectual choices?  I would say so.  But it is not easy and takes the dedication of a teacher who is also committed to literature.

What do you think?