Fascist slogans for our school children.

[1monster]

I was in the gym of a middle school last week and exiting through a door used almost exclusively by the students when I looked up and saw a banner above the exit.

(All names have been deleted for obvious reasons.)

XXXXX MIDDLE SCHOOL and XXXXXXX COMPANY
STRENGTH AND VALUES THROUGH CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP


This might not have made such an impression on me, but just the night before I'd watched V FOR VENDETTA, so it struck an immediate chord. That chord resonated even more when I remembered that the unnamed company is a sponsor of the Glen Beck radio show...

Sigh

[HeeBGBz]

1. Kinda 1984-ish

How creepy is that?

[1monster]

6. It certainly made me pause. I'll admit that the company in question

is a partner in raising funds and other projects with the school. BUT, so were other companies similar partners (they call them business partners) with other schools my son attended or that I have been in and I have never seen such a banner before.

I could see a banner that said something about XXXX Company being a partner in raising educational opportunities for our children.

These partners do help the schools in different ways and do derserve recognition for their efforts. I'm sure that any costs associated could be written off in a variety of ways,including advertising, thus some kind of visible acknowledgement is necessaray, but golly gee! How about a little forethought on what the message is saying!

[CrispyQ]

2. Outrageous. I'd take this up as a cause.

Corporate citizenship????? It's time to reign these behemoths in! Revoke their personhood status & see what kind of citizenship they have then. :grr: :grr: :grr:

:grr: :grr: :grr: I can't tell you how mad this makes me!

[MadJohnShaft]

3. Go Sharpie a big V on it

[1monster]

11. Good idea! Can I borrow a ladder so I can reach it?

[Poll_Blind]

4. That is really creepy bullshit. Fuck that corporate noise, it's COMMUNITY

STRENGTH AND VALUES THROUGH COMMUNITY CITIZENSHIP

If I was a parent of a child attending that school I would holt their hooves to the fire, asking for names about who came up with such crap. Wow, sorry, that just really pissed me off. Corporatism over community is a vicious ideological struggle inherent in capitalist societies but I never expected to hear that someone printed out bullshit like that and would paste it up to indoctrinate children.

Because, of course, corporations have values and the only strength they derive is from power. Hardly...HARDLY...anything morally, spiritually or intellectually sound.

That's fascist indoctrination, no bones about it.

PB

[aggiesal]

5. What is Corporate Citizenship?

Please reveal the name of the school and the company that you x'd out.
I see no obvious reasons why this should be x'd out.
Besides if this is a public school they should have nothing to hide.

[1monster]

8. I work for the school district in question and maybe I'd like to keep

my extremely low paying job?

That is reason enough for me not to reveal the names.

If I were just a bit more financially secure, I might be willing to name names, but things are really rocky here right now. My husband only worked fourteen hours last week.

[guruoo]

12. Get someone else to do it for you....

[Poll_Blind]

9. The poster has the right to protect information which may reveal...

...anything about their location, etc. In that case, I hope our outrage translates into some action on their part if we are not allowed, as it were, to "have at it".

PB

[FormerDem06]

15. My Company does a lot of this stuff....

They view "Corporate Citizenship" as giving the schools a TON of money and being good Corporate Citizens. It's viewing the Corporation as a "citizen" of the country per se. As in, I as a person do my part but my company does its part as well.

Does that make sense.

I think the number is in the 15-20 million range that my company gives to local school systems each year; thus making them good "citizens" I guess. As opposed to a corporation taking all of their profits and doing nothing and being greedy.

[YOY]

20. Yes but here's the thing:

It's not their job to support schools, build infrastructure, and to provide other basic comforts of a developed society.

That's the local, state, and federal government's job.

Any money spent on such endeavors might as well been taxed from the company in the first place.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Their involvement is great though

Corporations also can be a lot more creative than the govt. And more productive. I remember a few years ago when we called a business sponsor in our neighborhood and told them we had kids who needed coats. Two days later, we had 100 brand new coats delivered to our school. No way would the district or state or feds have gotten those coats to us that fast.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Thank you!!

Every little bit helps.

[OzarkDem]

7. That has no place in a public school

We never had that kind of advertising in our schools growing up. Heck, there weren't even vending machines to buy products.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I would be willing to bet

that when you went to school, the financial picture for public education was not as drastic as it is today. I have been teaching for nearly 30 years and I can remember when it was against most school boards' policy to display corporate logos in public schools. Now their involvement bridges the gap between what the govt gives schools and what we actually need to educate our kids.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Unfortunately

The business community's involvement in public education is vital to our schools. Much of the technology we have in public schools today comes from private corporations. My school and 2 others in our district just got a $250,000 grant from Best Buy. With that grant, teachers are getiing laptops and smart boards in their classrooms. No way can a cash strapped public school district afford this kind of technology.

So either raise your taxes (a lot!) or depend on corporate money to bring technology to our schools.

I know - it sucks, but it is the way it is.

[1monster]

14. I'm not knocking the business partnerships with the school. I can

see with my own eyes the good that it does the schools especially since school funding is so far down the list of priorities for our legislators.

Publix was a sponsor for my son's elementary school many years ago and they did great things for the kids, including giving them tours through the parts of a grocery store that the general public never sees. They had employee volunteers at the school all the time.
The same unnamed school above had voluteers from a local bank donate time to help in the concession stand during sporting events which raised money for one of the arts departments.

I don't recall seeing a banner from any of the other business partners in any of the schools touting their "corporate citizenship" or the "strentght and values" that come from such a partnership.

My problem was with the slogan. You have to admit that it doesn't exactly strike the note that perhaps it meant to? Or maybe it does.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Yes I agree about the slogan

It's downright creepy. But what can you say? If we take their money, they are going to want to put up some banners.

[Golden Raisin]

17. Imagine if the Bush junta

spent even 1% or 2% on education of the billions being thrown down the bottomless drain of Iraq. Personally, I believe the steady decline and impoverishment of American public school education since the end of World War II has been deliberate. Politicians prefer malleable sheeple, not thinkers. Teachers are not paid adequately, schools lack equipment, class sizes are too large, actual infrastructure is shaky in many cases. Now we have the anti-science loonies sticking their hands in to ban the teaching of evolution, etc. One constantly reads those surveys citing results in which American students cannot identify Iraq on a map, or even Florida, New York or California. China is SO going to bury us.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. You are completely correct

NCLB is especially devastating. It is NOT about not leaving kids behind, it is about discrediting public schools to create an atmosphere where the public demands vouchers. Many repuke politicians have actually admitted they WANT public schools to fail.

There are so many things all those dollars going to Iraq could go for. Health care comes to mind as one of the more critical needs. And education.

[Marr]

19. No need to raise the taxes. Just spend the current tax money

more wisely. Trade a few stealth bombers for public school laptops. Make sure public schools are funded equally; no posh facilities for rich areas and run-down trailers for poor areas.

I understand why schools move on this sort of thing- it's not like they can decide to cut the funding for missile development this year. But it's got a corrosive effect on the schools, in my opinion.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. We spend far too much time begging for money

We are educators and we want to TEACH. But we are forced to beg for resources. It is sickening.

[Marr]

23. Yeah, it's nuts.

And the constant attacks on public schools has always made me sick to my stomach. I had some great teachers in school who did alot with very little- but they could've done more if they'd had the resources.

[KitSileya]

24. I think that if they stopped corporate welfare,

perhaps the school districts could fford technology after all. I bet the fascists in the White House and Congress give more to the corporations than the corporations donate to school districts.

However, until that battle has been fought and won, I'm glad that your school has managed to update itself, no matter where the money came from. Everything that actually benefits the students and the teachers is a good thing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. I can fight back in small ways

I was given posters from the Best Buy people to hang in my school but I conveniently forgot to do that. :)

[aggiesal]

31. That's been my complaint in the past.

Here in CA., Proposition 13 has literally depleted the schools of tax funds.
Families without students in schools (usually older families, whose kids have
graduated) feel that they no longer need to support the school system.

At the same time the school that my child attends, we had to raise $125K last
year, for educational enhancements. The community is relatively affluent (i.e. Republican),
with parents complaining about always raising funds (i.e. too many fundraisers).

My standard response to them has always been "You received your $600 check didn't you?,
If you don't want to be in fundraiser mode all the time, donate that to the school."
With 400 families and $600 from each we're talking $240k. If they donated half of the
$600, we'd get $130k. Instead we only get 50% participation for $200.

They always want the best services, but don't want to pay any taxes for them.

[CrispyQ]

32. If we didn't give corporations huge tax breaks

we could afford to build schools, equip them & staff them, too! Our tax policies are destroying our country. Guess it wouldn't matter, though. Any additional funds in the treasury would be sucked into bushco's war machine. Problem solved! Your students don't need an education to pull a trigger.

It is such a tragic situation.

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. I think all businesses getting breaks on property taxes

should have to donate materials and man hours to local school districts.

[Marr]

16. At my high school there was a program called

"work study"- I assume alot of schools have it. We were in a poor area.

Anyway, boxes of parts were delivered each week from an airplane manufacturer. In order to pass the "course" (which was repeated each semester), the student had to assemble the parts. We'd earn credits based on the number of parts we assembled. Free labor. That's "corporate citizenship".

I graduated in 1991, so I expect this program may still be active.

[Berry Cool]

27. You know how you go to a sports stadium and it's named for a company?

At least most of them are?

Don't be surprised when your grandkids and great-grandkids, instead of going to Thomas Jefferson Elementary or Your Town's Name High School, are attending Disney Elementary and graduating from OfficeMax High.

[Marr]

30. It would not surprise me in the least. n/t

[lonestarnot]

29. WTF! Did you offer any suggestions to replace it?