We truly wanted to give something back'' to schools, Louise Burke, the manager of leisure-travel marketing programs at Holiday Inn, said of the geography package. Ms. Burke added. Many teaching kits are filled with corporate logos or outright promotions and product samples, the critics say, while others feature broader political, social, or environmental messages. And while the kits may contain accurate and useful information, the materials seldom undergo the scrutiny required for textbooks and other official curriculum materials, the critics add. We think all curriculum materials should go through a very rigorous review process,'' said Karen Brown, the research director at the Center for the Study of Commercialism, a public-interest group in Washington.
School systems are strapped for money and time.
The question is whether this stuff makes any sense at all in terms of the overall purpose of education in this country,'' he said. The answer is no.'' National Guidelines While the free materials have been around for years, in such forms as classroom films and posters, they did not attract widespread scrutiny until about four years ago, when the media entrepreneur Christopher Whittle first tested his Channel One classroom news show. The inclusion of two minutes of advertising in the televised current-events show sparked protests and help prompt a broader debate over commercialism in schools. Educators looked around and noticed a lot of other advertising in their classrooms, hallways, and athletic arenas. A 1990 report by Consumers Union, an independent research group, concluded that corporate-sponsored teaching materials were reaching 20 million elementary and secondary school students each year.