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After you read the press release, be
sure to
tell Scholastic to stop marketing television in preschools.
September 15, 2005
Contact: Dr. Susan Linn (617) 278-4282
Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint (617) 278-4105
For
Immediate Release
CCFC to Scholastic: Stop Peddling TV In Preschools
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is urging
Scholastic, Inc. to stop promoting Tickle U, the Cartoon
Network’s new block of programming for toddlers, in preschools.
Scholastic recently sent branded Tickle U teaching materials to
more than 20,000 preschool teachers and intends to update the
materials on a monthly basis.
“Given what we know about the potential harms of television for
young children, it is dangerous and irresponsible of Scholastic
to use preschool classrooms to promote new television programs,”
said Alvin F. Poussaint, MD of the Judge Baker Children’s
Center. Television viewing by young children has been linked to
obesity, attention deficient disorders and low academic
achievement. “Marketing Tickle U in preschools undermines
parents’ positive attempts to discourage excessive television
viewing among their young children.”
Scholastic claims its materials are “designed to provide fun and
educational activities for teachers to use in the classroom to
encourage children to build language, thinking, and social
skills.” It is clear, however, from the teaching materials –
including a classroom poster of the Tickle U characters and a
parent guide that urges children to “Tune in to Tickle U” – that
the real goal of Scholastic’s partnership with Tickle U is to
use classrooms to introduce and promote the Cartoon Network’s
new programming and the licensed products it will be selling.
“Partnering with Tickle U undermines Scholastic’s reputation as
a positive force in children lives,” said psychologist Susan
Linn, CCFC’s co-founder and author of Consuming Kids.
“Preschools should be safe havens from this kind of
commercialism. If Scholastic continues to use classrooms to
promote TV programs, they risk losing parents’ trust and
damaging their privileged relationship with schools and with
children.”
Sarae Pancetta, a preschool teacher from Dorchester,
Massachusetts, is angry that Scholastic is promoting its Tickle
U materials as a curriculum that will aid in humor development.
“I have looked to Scholastic in the past as a publisher of good
teaching materials and I am appalled that they would partner
with Cartoon Network to market Tickle U in preschools under the
guise of ‘curriculum’. I would never use such curriculum with
children - I can teach them humor through relationships, stories
and experiences.”
CCFC has initiated a letter-writing campaign to demand that
Scholastic end its partnership with Tickle U and pledge not to
market television in preschools. For more information, please
visit
http://hq.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ccfc/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1226
The Campaign
for a Commercial-Free Childhood is a national coalition of
health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and
concerned parents who counter the harmful effects of marketing
to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and
collaboration among organizations and individuals who care about
children. CCFC supports the rights of children to grow up – and
the rights of parents to raise them – without being undermined
by rampant consumerism. For more information, please visit:
www.commercialfreechildhood.org
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