Trying to compose this letter to the editor (no, the second one) at the StarTribune was a great exercise. I wanted to respond to an article on Piper Jaffray’s survey of teenage shoppers. It took me half a day to get from my first draft to the eight sentences that appeared in the newspaper. Blog rants do not translate easily to the opinion page.

What I didn’t say was that I was completely put off that Piper Jaffray (NYSE: PJC) gets free access to public schools.

Reminds me a bit of our experiences with Junior Achievement, which brings me to this year’s lesson. It topped even last year’s.

The theme of the day (for fourth- and fifth-graders) was “Our Region:” 

. . . students discover the natural, human, and capital resources in their home states and in regions of the United States. JA classroom volunteers show how resources are combined to create goods and services that individuals, businesses, and organizations provide to consumers.

For one activity, the kids had to come up with a business, determine the natural, human, and capital resources they would need to run that business, and then determine the best location for it. If the chosen location does not have all the needed resources, the kids are asked to consider moving it to another state. 

Another activity was a board game, THE BOTTOM LINE. The children run “The Little e-Racer Company” which manufactures small, car-shaped erasers. Moving around the board, they keep track of income and expenses (oil, soap, color) and encounter challengers that a company might face. For example:

– Go to Penny Mart: Christmas sales are booming. (Income: $200)
– Go to Polly & Pete’s Pizza: Polly & Pete put the e-Racer in all of their Smiley Meals. We sell more e-Racers. (Income: $50)
– RISK Seadog’s Shipyard: We decide not to fix the oil tanker. It spills oil in the sea. We must clean up the oil! (Expense: $100)

And here’s the little piece of plastic that the actual ”e-Racer” came in:

If you’re a corporation and you want to feel/look good by engaging the Youth of Today, at least give them relevant — and accurate — lessons. Of course, I’d prefer you’d stop selling your services — and the propaganda of corporate marketing — in our schools.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 9:03 am and is filed under American corporate capitalism, The Problem. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.