Victory! Scholastic Pulls Its American Coal Foundation Curriculum

Last week I wrote here that Scholastic’s coal curriculum distributed to 66,000 fourth grade teachers, was sponsored by the American Coal Foundation, meaning that it somehow failed to mention any of the downsides of coal production: no negative effects of mining and burning coal, no toxic wastes, no lung disease, no greenhouse houses.

Victory!

As a result of media pressure, Scholastic announced last Friday that it had withdrawn this biased curriculum. In the name of all educators, thank you, Scholastic.

Here’s part of their announcement:

“This week, Scholastic came under criticism for an 11” x 16” poster map which displays different sources of energy – coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind and natural gas – not so much for the content of the poster but primarily for its sponsorship by the American Coal Foundation. We acknowledge that the mere fact of sponsorship may call into question the authenticity of the information, and therefore conclude that we were not vigilant enough as to the effect of sponsorship in this instance. We have no plans to further distribute this particular program.”

Well, that doesn’t exactly cover the full extent of the damage, but at least they are withdrawing the curriculum.

Corporate Interests Do Not Belong In Our Nation’s Classrooms

Materials funded by corporate interests have no place in our nation’s classrooms. An excellent education means teaching kids to think for themselves by presenting them with many different points of view, and allowing them to make up their own minds. Giving them only one side of the story is never a good idea.

Scholastic Inc. admits that up to 10 percent of its materials may come from outside sponsors. Let’s hope they will rethink this policy. Our children deserve better.

No More Corporate Sponsorship

At a time when private interests are investing more and more in American education, it is especially important that we monitor exactly what these private interests are asking for, in exchange for their “donations.”

Thank you, Scholastic, for doing the right thing. And please think twice before you accept sponsorship again.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Ron S.

12:09PM PDT on May 23, 2011

What is wrong with corporate sponsorships from all. If you stop one then you should stop all sponsorships. Children need to be educated and that involves the entire community both what some think is wrong and from those who think they are the only ones who are correct. Free choice equals responsiblity and choosing who is correct or not in not a free society.

send a green star

12:08PM PDT on May 23, 2011

Wioletta S.

12:39AM PDT on May 19, 2011

think about it

Ylonda C.

3:11PM PDT on May 18, 2011

.........so, in effect, rather than ask Scholastic to present both the good and the bad.......you would rather silence their voice altogether. YOU call that " victory"? I call it shallow minded.

It reeks of " my way or no way"........most of us learned about the bully in grade school. Apparently, it is not an outgrown characteristic.

Mike C.

1:33PM PDT on May 18, 2011

you liberals don't connect the dots, you think electirc cars are great but don't think about the amount of increased coal it will take to support the increase in electic, duh. No, wind power will never replace coal. wind accounts for 2% of electric today, coal 60%, how many wind turbines will it take just to cover the increased demand for electic power every you, forget replacing coal.
I just came back from 3 weeks in china, the air is so dirty I never saw blue sky once, all the buildings are soot covered. they are adding 1 coal fired plant every month. so until they do something anything we do will be offset 10 times by the chinese. My eyes watered all the time, until you stop buying their goods the worldwide air will not change.

Robert O.

11:25AM PDT on May 18, 2011

Good! It was a stupid idea to begin with. While I think children shoudl learn the history of coal and fossil fuels (to avoid the mistakes of the past), they need to look ahead to the future of renewable resources and how they can help sustain our beloved, endangered planet.

KS G.

5:23AM PDT on May 18, 2011

Thanks for the article.

Grace A.

5:20AM PDT on May 18, 2011

Children need to learn to notice the source of information and to take the source into consideration in deciding how seriously to take the information. I am in favor of showing children sponsored information as long as we show children a wide variety of information from a wide variety of sponsors and point out the sponsorship.

Lilithe M.

2:47AM PDT on May 18, 2011

May we get our collective heads out of the sand soon enough to create a clean world with clean technology and plenty for all.

Morgan G.

7:01PM PDT on May 17, 2011

NO "education" is viewpoint-neutral. It is always going to present SOMEBODY'S idea of what needs to be presented to kids. Ideally, it should begin with parents, because they bear the ultimate responsibility for the outcomes of the lives for which they have assumed initial direction.

Along the way, we are going to have to find creative ways to engage private groups such as corporations in helping educate our children. They represent a resource that we cannot afford to ignore. On the other hand, there is always the problem that the message they may wish to present will NOT be unbiased. So the process of education MUST include mechanisms for filtering their contributions to insure that what they say is done in a positive manner that really makes a contribution to the education of our young people.