This Final Exam is Brought to You by the Double Whopper Or a Really Good Way to Make Money at School
According to the USA Today Newspaper, Tom Farber is a teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego, California.
Due to budget cuts at his school, his allowance for making photocopies shrunk from over $500 per year to only $316.
Since teachers already spend significant amounts of their own money to buy school supplies that are unfunded by their districts, Farber sought to find a more creative solution.
He decided to sell advertising space to local merchants on his homework and test papers- $10 for a quiz, $20 for a chapter test, $30 for a semester final.
So far, the USA Today reports that approximately two-thirds of the ads sold are actually inspirational messages bought by parents who want to and are in a position to help financially support their children's education.
The other third of the ads have been purchased by businesses such as an orthodontist and an engineering firm.
Supposedly, his idea is catching on with other teachers in his school, who see this as a way of getting what they need without having to cut into their own salaries to get it.
I have to admit that I was floored when I first read this.
I mean, really, how can we, as a country, spend $10 billion dollars per month in Iraq, but we cannot afford to provide our children with enough paper for their tests? There is absolutely no justifiable rationale for this.
Something is really out of whack.
OK, that being said, I do think that selling advertising space on tests is actually a terrific solution for cash-strapped schools.
Advertising is a fact of life.
We are exposed to dozens, if not hundreds, of marketing messages per day.
Not only are they on television, radio, and billboards, but ads underwrite our school yearbooks, sports programs, school play bills, and auction handbooks.
If it weren't for advertising dollars, many of the items associated with schools that we take for granted would disappear.
We are already neck-deep into this world of trading access to our students for money, so why not sell a little space on a quiz or a test? Of course, there need to be logical guidelines pertaining to the appropriateness of certain sponsors.
I wouldn't think that a liquor store or a tattoo parlor would be good choices, for instance, but barring these common-sense exceptions, I would be open to any business that wanted to help the school system in this fashion.
Since advertising has become so pervasive and so slick in its delivery, the bigger issue here, I believe, is the real responsibility on us, the adults, to educate our children on how to live in an advertising culture.
We need to talk to our kids about developing their resistance to aggressive marketing everywhere.
If we can successfully do this, then it really doesn't matter if the McDonald's or Nike logo is at the bottom of their final exam.
Due to budget cuts at his school, his allowance for making photocopies shrunk from over $500 per year to only $316.
Since teachers already spend significant amounts of their own money to buy school supplies that are unfunded by their districts, Farber sought to find a more creative solution.
He decided to sell advertising space to local merchants on his homework and test papers- $10 for a quiz, $20 for a chapter test, $30 for a semester final.
So far, the USA Today reports that approximately two-thirds of the ads sold are actually inspirational messages bought by parents who want to and are in a position to help financially support their children's education.
The other third of the ads have been purchased by businesses such as an orthodontist and an engineering firm.
Supposedly, his idea is catching on with other teachers in his school, who see this as a way of getting what they need without having to cut into their own salaries to get it.
I have to admit that I was floored when I first read this.
I mean, really, how can we, as a country, spend $10 billion dollars per month in Iraq, but we cannot afford to provide our children with enough paper for their tests? There is absolutely no justifiable rationale for this.
Something is really out of whack.
OK, that being said, I do think that selling advertising space on tests is actually a terrific solution for cash-strapped schools.
Advertising is a fact of life.
We are exposed to dozens, if not hundreds, of marketing messages per day.
Not only are they on television, radio, and billboards, but ads underwrite our school yearbooks, sports programs, school play bills, and auction handbooks.
If it weren't for advertising dollars, many of the items associated with schools that we take for granted would disappear.
We are already neck-deep into this world of trading access to our students for money, so why not sell a little space on a quiz or a test? Of course, there need to be logical guidelines pertaining to the appropriateness of certain sponsors.
I wouldn't think that a liquor store or a tattoo parlor would be good choices, for instance, but barring these common-sense exceptions, I would be open to any business that wanted to help the school system in this fashion.
Since advertising has become so pervasive and so slick in its delivery, the bigger issue here, I believe, is the real responsibility on us, the adults, to educate our children on how to live in an advertising culture.
We need to talk to our kids about developing their resistance to aggressive marketing everywhere.
If we can successfully do this, then it really doesn't matter if the McDonald's or Nike logo is at the bottom of their final exam.
