If you persist and click through several levels, you may find a list of other providers, but the strategic partners remain prominently displayed at the top while all the others are listed farther down the page out of sight with prominent competitors ignored and unmentioned. Recommendations at some sites are for sale, like shelf space in a grocery store. If you want prominent placement or mention for your product or your information, a company may have to sign a partnership agreement or pay for a high ranking. The minds, preferences, and brand loyalties of young students should not be for sale or for rent by those entrusted with their upbringing. Stemming the Tide Even though corporate partnerships are all the rage in some quarters, boards of education and school administrators should remain vigilant and cautious when it comes to marketing intrusions into the learning process.
Most boards have policies prohibiting advertising in schools.
This is a good first step, but the incursions have become so subtle and so pervasive for any student browsing the Internet that it is probably impossible to block all advertising unless filters are installed. The most serious intrusions are those that limit choice and sanction marketing on a large scale. When districts or schools sign agreements with portals or providers that severely restrict access to information and promote brand loyalties as if they were family values, they do their students a great disservice. They have become cheerleaders and bandwagon proponents rather than protectors of childhood rights and values. The Antidotes Clear board policy on advertising in schools plus types of business partnerships permitted and enouraged.