I am always a little disgusted and torn by the magazine drive that my school hosts at the start of each year. Students sell magazines to win fabulous prizes and the school gets money for student activities -- money that doesn't otherwise exist for many of our students. What bugs me, though, is that the magazine company cleans up. Big time. They entice the kids to sell by giving away iPods, XBoxes, TVs, stereos, remote control helicopters, and much, much more. Meanwhile, they sit back and collect the dough. Some serious dough from what I can tell. Is this fundraising or child labor?
And then, as I'm sitting there listening to the spiel in the auditorium, all I can think about are the survivors of the hurricane who don't give a damn right now about iPods, XBoxes, TVs, stereos, remote control helicopters, and much, much more that their capitalist country tries to make them think matters most. Instead of having students sell crap no one needs so they can earn crap they don't need, why not fundraise for the hurricane victims? Why not teach our students that human lives matter more than things, and while we'd all like to have cool shit, we have more important work to do?
I am stepping off of my comfortable little soapbox now, but it is not lost on me that I am lucky enough to have dry ground below.
4 comments:
pretty poor timing on the magazine drive i would say.
it took quinn a long time to figure out what he would have to do to actually get the grand prize he so desperately wanted when the magazine seller people came around. he had to settle for a rubber ball shaped like the earth or a key chain with a tiny flashlight on it. if anything.
we're bringing in the cash for the hurricane victims, so i'm glad of that, but i feel we should be doing some work along with this funddrive and i haven't gotten organized about that. rambling here...
V. good entry - makes me think. I always hated selling things. I notice that, now, parents seem to do most of the selling. They bring the sheet selling cookies, or wrapping paper or whatever, to work and sell to their co-workers and their kid gets the prize. I'm not sure this is teaching kids anything, either.
Violation of child labor laws for sure. I always refused to participate in those activities as a child. . . I still graduated. WWThoreauD?
Good news. The fund raiser is starting Monday and we are raising money for families who have moved into our district. We've got one student from Mississippi in our building already.
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