Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood

Spread the Word About Our Teacher Petition to Scholastic!

More than 4,500 people have joined CCFC’s letter writing campaign to convince Scholastic to “put the book back in book clubs.” Now we are launching phase two—a petition signed exclusively by teachers. Scholastic relies on the good will of educators to advertise directly to children in school. Now is the time for teachers to let Scholastic know they do not want to promote non-educational toys, trinkets, and video games in their classrooms.

Please let educators know about this important petition by sending the letter below to your child's teacher or other teachers you know.

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Subject * Tell Scholastic: Book Clubs Are For Books

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As a teacher, I thought you might be interested in this campaign:

Lip gloss, video games, jewelry, remote control cars, key chains.  Are you troubled that Scholastic is marketing so many products that aren’t books in the Book Club flyers you hand out to students? Now you can do something about it.  Join teachers all over the country in urging Scholastic to “Put the Book Back in Book Club” by visiting http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/scholastic.

Scholastic is the world’s leading educational publisher. The book clubs help teachers build classroom libraries and can offer children the opportunity to purchase quality, inexpensive books. Yet a review of Scholastic’s 2008 elementary and middle school book club flyers by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood found that one-third of the items for sale are either not books or are books packaged with other items such as jewelry and toys.

Non-books included the M&M's Kart Racing Wii videogame, an American Idol event planner; the Princess Room Alarm; a wireless controller for the PS2 gaming system; and a make-your-own flip flops kit ("hang out at the pool in style").  Books sold with non-book items included Hannah Montana: Seeing Green with a guitar pick bracelet and the Friends 4 Ever Style Pack with two lip gloss rings.  In addition, a significant number of Scholastic’s books are little more than ads for popular TV shows, and movies such as SpongeBob SquarePants and High School Musical.

Over 4,500 parents have already written to Scholastic expressing their concerns with the book club offerings, but a teacher petition will carry even more weight.  Scholastic depends on your authority to help them market their merchandise.  Everything you hand out to students in your classroom carries your endorsement and that of your school—including every toy, brand, and trinket advertised in the Scholastic flyers.

If you believe that teachers should not be enlisted as salespeople for lip gloss and toys, please let Scholastic know by visiting http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/scholastic.

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