The recession deepens and budgets tighten.
This isn’t news to citizens of Pocatello, Idaho. Students, teachers and administrators of the school district sure feel it. Cuts in state aid are leading to a $10 million shortfall. Citizens voted down a tax increase.
So every light switch has a warning next to it, to save electricity.
More interesting is history and economics teacher Jeb Harrison’s response. He went out shopping for a sponsor, and nearby Molto Caldo Pizzeria agreed to supply Harrison’s class with 10,000 sheets of paper.
Charity?
Community spirit?
No. Advertising.
Every sheet has the imprint of Molto Caldo Pizzeria. For a mere $315 the pizza joint places its name in front of a most promising clientele. With every test, pop quiz, worksheet, and info sheet on the Great Depression, students see the tasteful ad for what I hope is tasty pizza.
Though a schoolboard member gave kudos to Harrison for “creativity,” there are critics. One news report quotes Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist, saying that this “crosses a line.”
OK … but, just maybe, instead, this sort of classroom advertising should increase. Students in public schools could bring home their report cards printed on on paper with ads from competing private schools.
“Learn more, better, faster — at Joe’s Education Emporium.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “History, Economics, Pizza”
I Love it. Tighten em up even more. Jeez someone actually thought of ways to save money by shutting off lights and and giving the kids some paper and wouldn’t you know it some bureaucrat thinks it crosses the line. Hey I got an idea, lets get rid of the bureaucrat and save the salary. Perhaps we should start a campaign that rewards the the person who thinks of something creative by allow them the opportunity to select the bureaucrat to be fired. Perhaps we can get rid of them all!
I suspect the concern mentioned has to do with the notion of influence, i.e. that the pizza place has something to gain, or an ax to grind, or whatever, and therefore poses a threat to students. And of course, this presupposes that government is purely objective…and we all know the falseness of that assumption.
I am 66 and when I went to El-Hi we were given covers for our text books that had advertisements of local merchants imprinted on them.