| Do Corporations Belong in Schools?; Corporate Partnerships and Advertising | |
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| Topic Started: May 15 2009, 09:29 PM (85 Views) | |
| Zeth | May 15 2009, 09:29 PM Post #1 |
It's a good source of potassium!
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So, lately, both in the news and in school prompts that reflect issues being faced by the government/educational system, I've heard a great deal of talk about the role of businesses in schools. Parents and congressmen complain that advertisements in schools, logos on clothing and personal items, and corporate partnerships between businesses and schools are a negative influence on the people attending the schools, and bad for any given country overall because of that influence coming to fruition when the students graduate. So here I've summarized my own thoughts on the matter. Corporate partnerships are a necessary and integral aspect of modern school life. School, by definition, is an institution designed and purposed to better prepare and equip students for a successful life in the world at large. Corporations and their advertising, well, to a large degree are the “world at large”—at least in regions where formal schooling is common. Restricting these things from schools would only create an illusion of a world that is not actually there. Let’s take for example, the history of any given nation where this issue of corporate partnerships and advertising is likely to be found. What are those countries like? Quite likely, they are first world countries that are home to large industries and banking facilities, law firms and research entities. You are not nearly as likely to see the economies of those countries resting on the back of an agrarian society. This is because those countries and their government have had some sort of industrial revolution, maybe multiple. The United States of the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the rise of such giants as Rockefeller and Carnegie and Morgan, plutocratic despots who are sometimes frowned upon for their seemingly oppressive business practices. But look to the facts, the statistics. Anyone who does is bound to notice that as industry progressed, as these corporations grew, educational standards grew apace with them; because money is god in both business and education. Whether the actual want of money, the greed, is the motive or not, money is indeed king. Money is the goal for the businesses, and the necessity for the schools. For one cannot teach a child, or an adult, with no resources. Such a practice would be akin to something less than an apprenticeship. A dreamquest maybe, turning the individual into the wilderness and seeing if they learn anything from managing to survive. So we can see that one cannot exist without the other. And of course, since these formal school settings and these corporate behemoths cannot be divorced, why try to cover it up? Wherever the students of these schools are, the society around them will be chockfull of those corporations’ advertisements. It is something that will be a part of their life from childhood until death. They shouldn’t be isolated from it in schools, as they would horribly, detestably gullible and naïve when their schooling was complete if they were. Besides, students have lives outside of schools. The latest blockbuster will prominently display the brand name of the products of the companies funding the production. Friends will show off their iPods and Abercrombie fashions, and will of course claim theirs is the best. Billboards and radio an television, all these mediums, some art, some not, all of them are transporters of these ads, and will be encountered regardless of school intervention. So why would schools waste the time, effort, and revenue on trying to block it? Advertising is a part of life. If they rid themselves of these corporate partnerships and advertisements, not only would schools be financially crippled, but they would be failing in their duty and towards their purpose. |
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| DarkZeke | Jul 1 2009, 01:52 AM Post #2 |
I cut myself with occam's razor
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The other thing to consider is with the decline of government funding in public schools is it not better therefore to have corporate partnership? There are a few factors have to be considered. Number one being without money there can be no proper education. Number two being decreased government funding means that to make up for that fact revenue must be drawn from other sources in order to meet the need. |
 
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11:27 AM Mar 21
