Thursday, May 26, 2011

Just Wrong

I am still amazed at how depraved our corporate overlords can be. The latest evidence of just how low they will go was presented by an editorial in the Los Angeles Times. It seems that Scholastic, Inc., venerable and beloved educational materials publisher, has taken to working with major industries to present promotional materials to students. The latest free advertising involved the coal industry and was directed to fourth graders.

A division of Scholastic partnered with a coal industry trade group to produce an energy curriculum for fourth-graders — a poster and related materials — that extols the virtues of coal but neglects to mention the strip mining that degrades the landscape and removes entire mountaintops, the pollution of air and water associated with coal, or its role in global warming. The American Coal Foundation posted an online announcement about its joint project with Scholastic, which sent the "United States of Energy" package, free and unsolicited, to 66,000 teachers on its mailing list, including many in California, and emailed it to 82,000 more.

In this case, schools got what they paid for — a biased, incomplete and frankly embarrassing promotional product parading as education. ...


Never mind that the coal industry has been one of the main actors in the degradation of our environment from its method of extracting the fuel to the consequences of its use. Never mind that the bottom line is so important to the industry that the safety of its workers is rarely considered. Never mind that the industry has shamelessly bought officials at all levels of government so that it can operate freely without any kind of restraint. Scholastic found a way to turn a buck and they used it. On fourth graders.

Folks, I don't think this is what the Bible had in mind when it said, "Raise them up in the way they should go."

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1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Is there any further reading you would recommend on this?

Amela
promotional products bedford

4:17 AM  

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