I can understand people's troubles with Scholastic. I haven't had any, and our
PTA, which runs the fair, has refused to sell the junk (non-book items) without any
complaints.
The issue, as I've pursued this further, seems to be that one parent disliked the
fact that the Scholastic book orders had The Golden Compass on it, and since she
was religiously offended by that book, she took this route to get Scholastic
banned. I've also been asked by my principal to pull all three books from the
trilogy from the shelves. They can't come out and say they are banning the book
(bad PR), but they are using this route.
As for the concerns about corporate greed, I ask this: Why do we allow portrait
companies to come in make a profit? Doesn't that effect instructional time? Why
do we have assemblies to get kids excited about fundraisers - those companies make
a profit - and it takes away from instructional time. In my district, in this
case, it is not about corporate greed: it is about one parent doing her "religious
duty" to stop this title from being in schools, and it's being masked as a legal
issue.
Ron Wagner
Teacher-Librarian
Felida Elementary School
Vancouver, WA
ron.wagner@vansd.org
>>> Ellen Whelpton <whlptn@AIM.COM> 1/10/2008 8:21 AM >>>
I am so glad to hear support for the idea that using taxpayers-paid instructional
time and library availability time to sell things, especially using a monopoly,
which it is, is disgusting if it isn't illegal.? I have had the experience from
hell with Scholastic because I asked my principal to skip it since our kids are
very low income and it just hurts their feelings, and she offered to buy them the
books.? A great idea if Scholastic weren't the ones you have to deal with.? For
three years I had to put up with not getting enough books, every day of the fair,
(no.... crying screaming, begging, threatening on the phone every day didn't work)
being lied to, orders cancelled, time slots for the bookfair cancelled, each
Scholastic employee blaming others and enough stress to give me a stroke.?
Finally,? I accidentally got hold of an employee in a different part of the
country, who had no commission to lose, who told me Scholastic has a program to
send very very discounted books!
to schools who are giving them to the kids, and you get what you actually ask
for.? (Hopefully- I haven't gotten them yet.).? "Literacy Partnerships". Three
years later.? We have spent close to $40,000 for three years of the service from
hell.
ALSO the books you get from them with the profits are not cataloged.? I paid 1.50 a
book to get what they call cataloging.? It consists of one barcode, VERY STRANGELY
CATALOGED, MOST HAVE TO BE RECATALOGED,? with one call number, and two stickers
with author, title .? The bar code and call number is not on the stickers for the
card and pocket.? NO COVERS, NO POCKET, NO CARD.? $1.50 each, and every other one
is missing information or not there.? Basically I have to write so much the only
time it saved is the info upload.? They could just offer a disc since that's all
you really get.? I have to make the extra barcode for the back for inventory, so
that is not even saving time, since I could just print two while I'm wasting time
doing one.
I realize that some communities don't have bookstores, but that's why God created
Amazon.
Ellen Whelpton
Library Media Teacher
Horace Mann Middle School,LAUSD
7001 S. St. Andrews
Los Angeles, CA 90047
whlptn@aol.com
-----Original Message-----
From: librarychickie <yasumani@VERIZON.NET>
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Sent: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 7:27 am
Subject: Re: RANT:Anti-Scholastic movement in my district
Although I doubt the monopoly issue would demand us to stop using scholastic, I
agree with the parent.
I also agree it is a pure waste of instructional time and would prefer it be
treated as an elective afterschool event.
The only reason we are forced to use book fairs or any fundraising mechanism
is because we as parents, teachers and a community refuse to fund schools
properly. A wide range of corporations (scholastic included) benefit enormously
from this fact.
I am disgusted with our children being used for corporate gain. I am required
to hold scholastic fairs but I am continually disgusted with the junk they sell
and the profit they make off of my lower middle income students.
From: "Ron Wagner"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 2:30 PM
Subject: RANT:Anti-Scholastic movement in my district
> In our 2500+ student district, one parent complained that Scholastic has a
> "monopoly" on book orders and wanted the distribution of book club
> materials stopped. Our district lawyer agreed, and took it one step
> further: We can no longer have book fairs that are open during
> "instructional time" because we do not want to allow a company to sell
> things to kids while they should be learning. We'd have to have it open
> only during recesses or after school. With our 675+ kids, that would not
> work, so we stand to lose hundreds of dollars of book money for
> classrooms.
>
> Has anyone else even heard of this?
>
>
>
>
>
> Ron Wagner
> Teacher-Librarian
> Felida Elementary School
> Vancouver, WA
> ron.wagner@vansd.org
>
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