Schooltastic

How about this for a job offer? Sell our product while you’re at work! We don’t pay a salary, we don’t pay by commission; we don’t pay at all. If you do a good job, though, we’ll donate some of our inventory to your employer. You can make use of it while you’re at work.

This is the proposition offered to teachers from companies like Scholastic. This company is permitted to recruit teachers as unpaid sales reps in order to market directly to your kids at public schools. How many companies would like to have this advantage? Imagine having a sergeant promote your products to his platoon, or a pastor to her congregation. As a teacher, I wield influence over my students. Hopefully, I can use that influence to help them to be better writers, readers, and mathematicians. Not to hock products. 

Of course, we are talking about books. Books are good! Reading is good! Maybe the book orders help foster reading, and the books Scholastic will donate to my classroom could be useful. 

Except, it’s not just books. I’m not even sure it’s mostly books any more. Kids are also being sold posters, toys, DVDs, and video games at school. For many kids, seeing a video game juxtaposed with a book is like having a slice of chocolate cake on the same plate as their broccoli. 

As a parent, I make sure my son makes the right choice, even if he doesn’t like it. That’s my job. It’s a job I do at the mall, at a restaurant, and in the cereal aisle of the grocery store. I wish it wasn’t an issue at school.