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In-School Business Analysis

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What is the true definition of education? Is it the process of learning or does that term just address the schools setting? Is education what a person learns throughout his or her lifetime or is it just what they learn in the twelve to sixteen years they attend school? These are all questions being asked by not only myself but the entire nation. We have seen much change to the educational atmosphere throughout its long existence, but we who are living thorough it now, must decide whether these changes are having a positive or negative effect. Throughout the educational history change is one word that has stayed constant; however the most recent and most particular change amongst the educational arena is its move towards the business world. …show more content…

As stated by Springs, “educators and corporate managers are attending conferences to learn how to increase revenue from in-school marketing for their schools and companies” (Springs 180). The problem within that statement is the term educators are involve within it. Educators is synonymous with teachers and teachers should not be worrying about how to make the school extra money, but should be worrying about teaching the students in their classrooms. The General Accounting Office released a statement saying, “In-school marketing has become a growing industry,” denoting that marketing companies are targeting the students and children inside the schools. The idea of Channel One within schools creates a way that students are exposed to the commercialization of the business world. Zap Me, a computer business which supplies free computers and internet access across the country, displays computers which have screens that include continuously flashing advertisements. The business world is creeping ever so slowly into the educational atmosphere and is creating schools which are more run and designed like businesses. To make matters worse, few states across the country have laws that are critical of the marketing within schools that target students. In addition to the advertising of soft …show more content…

The best and most local example of this is within the Pittsburgh City School District. Mark Roosevelt, superintendent of the school district, and the school board sought outside of their teachers and district itself to Kaplan K12 Learning Services. The Pittsburgh school district paid Kaplan $8.4 million to write standardized curricula for grades six through 12. Kaplan has created these to be geared and based on the standardized testing, which is required with the passing of NCLB. Not only have districts been structured around these curriculums, but teachers have too. In a somewhat recent Post-Gazette article it said, “Teachers have complained that Kaplan's detailed curriculum turned them into automatons and deprived them of time to cover material in adequate detail or help students with individual needs.” Not only have these outside companies built and structured the schools, but have also made teachers and students machine-like. Neither the teacher nor the students have the ability and freedom to think or teach outside the box of these standardized driven curriculums. The company K-12 Eduventures figures this year that public schools will spend $24.9 billion on services and supplies from private providers, which leads to businesses making more money and school districts

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