"share day" sounds nice, but... - Page 6

[je309]

I suppose we will have to disagree. I don't think anyone in my child's class is trying to scheme anyone else... Certainly not the teacher. To each their own!

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by dancingmama

I guess we'll just have to disagree on this one. I see quite a large qualitative difference between Joey showing Sara his cool new lunchbox on their way to lunch, and an organized, focused group where everyone has to sit down and listen to Joey describe some new coveted toy in detail. It almost seems set-up to create overt focus on the object... I can't imagine a more effective advertising scheme.

sounds just about right to me.the point isn't that the children or the teacher's are trying to advertise...

http://www.millwardbrown.com/kidspeak/marketingTips/

check this out. it's tips for marketing to "tweens" from an advertising company. i can imagine that if they are using these tactics to market to 9-12 year olds that it isn't _that_ far from the realm of possibility that they have some ideas on how to market to younger kids.

please note the section that talks about peer-to-peer marketing.

[PlayaMama]

in fact, let me quote it:

"Build a peer-to-peer marketing program around community leaders and put tweens at the centre, not the brand. Develop viral marketing tools to enable tweens to market for you

Belonging to a group is a crucial part of tween life. Tweens look up to their leaders and inspire each other. Peer-to-peer marketing will play an increasingly important role in creating successful tween brands."

this is not from some anti-advertising website. this is from a site that is trying to get your company to use their advertising services.

please look around the site a little, i found it very interesting.

[PlayaMama]

last one i promise

"According to research conducted by Millward Brown in 2002, global tweens ages 9 – 14 don’t just influence family purchases such as breakfast cereals, but have a major say on adult purchases such as cars, cell phones and fashion items.

Our research also highlighted that as many as 1 in 3 of the tweens we spoke to had already developed a strong emotional bond with adult brands, and that this allegiance was likely to develop further during the teen years and on into adulthood."

pretty yucky hunh. maybe i should start a spin-off thread about marketing to children in schools....

[mamaofthree]

pretty darm scarey... even if at the school they are not setting it up to be QVC for kids, that is what happens.

thanks for the link.

h

[EXOLAX]

Originally Posted by supervee

LOL once my son had to share a rock from the parking lot.

Did I know that? It's possible I referenced an old post in my mind.... I'd be curious how much he actually shared about the parking lot rock versus a coveted item from home he had a personal attachment to. Though, my kid has personal attachments to parking lot rocks... "this one looks like the moon!!!".

I'm going to go out on a limb here and try to say again that I don't think the teachers are being tools of ad companies. If that is the case, and there is a teacher out there specifically telling kids to bring in the latest and greatest toy then I would be having a serious chat with that teacher. Who is buying these toys? Who is letting their kids bring them in? Who is really creating the environment? I would say the teacher opens the door for freedom of expression. If the class environment itself is materialistic and competitive then sure there things the teacher can do. I would venture to say it wasn't the teacher that created the environment though.

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by PlayaMama

the point isn't that the children or the teacher's are trying to advertise...

Originally Posted by EXOLAX

I'm going to go out on a limb here and try to say again that I don't think the teachers are being tools of ad companies.

Who is buying these toys? Who is letting their kids bring them in? Who is really creating the environment? I would say the teacher opens the door for freedom of expression.

um, i don't think the limb is too far from the trunk i'm pretty sure no one said the teacher's are working for ad companies.

the point about advertising is that it is subtle, under-the-radar, incognito, lots of things you don't even realize are ads (like people being paid to go to bars and talk about the neat thing they just bought, i had a friend that got paid to rave about a type of alcohol), not overt, sneaky, etc.

it reels kids in and through the kids it gets their parents $$. the poster wasn't saying that the teacher was in on some marketing scam, she was saying something along the lines of, "i bet di$ney LOVES it that their princess doll is the most talked about item at show and tell." at least that was the way i read it.

i do appreciate your point about freedom of expression. it is nice for kids to be able to share about things that are important to them. really. i'm not sure what to think about the football example. i think i'd be okay with the football, even if it is nike. i'd hate for a kid not to be able to share his favourite thing. same with the hotwheels.

i don't know, it just seems like when it becomes a competition for "stuff" that there is a problem. more later, fussy babe.

[fadedgirl]

My daughter's last preK class did this 3 days a week, for 20 minutes each day. Each child had five minutes (one day per week) to give "clues" to the other kids and they would try to guess what was in the bag. Sometimes the kids brought toys, sometimes they didn't. I didn't even bother to consider this weekly event whatsoever (aside from the fact that I thought it was a huge pain in the arse! ) and I don't believe the teachers are involved in any marketing conspiracy (aside from the constant, ever-tiresome pushing of Scholastic books, but that is the administration's fund raising, not the teachers ~~ and another thread entirely I suppose).

My daughter never once came home asking for something that one of her classmates had shown, but we're talking preK here. I'd guess it might be different for older kids.

Nonetheless, had another parent expressed an issue with toys @ show & tell, I would not have minded if toys had been stricken. Most schools in our area do have a strict "no toy" policy, probably for this very reason.

My daughter's other preK didn't do show & tell at all. I didn't even notice it was missing. I just don't think this activity, with or without toys, is anything to lose sleep over. And I certainly don't think anyone is trying to "control" what toys other people buy their kids (as if they could). I simply wouldn't have a problem being respectful to other parent's wishes on the toy issue during class, since I don't see any necessity for toys (from home) to be in school in the first place and I definitely don't see where any kid is harmed or neglected by their absence in class.

I know I must be missing something as folks seem adamantly opposed to the "no toy" rule at show & tell, but that is jmo.

[mammastar2]

I haven't worked my way through the whole thread, so apologies if this has been mentioned before, but one way I've seen "show and tell" or "share" work well is for children to be encouraged to bring in things to share that are related to whatever themes they're working on in school.

So, if they're spending time on "community helpers" and someone has a colouring book from the fire station, or if they're learning about rocks and someone has a favourite rock, they can bring them in to share. They're learning about birds, and someone has a peacock feather at home, bring it in!

I don't think anyone loses out, children still get time to practice speaking and the excitement of sharing something special, and most toy-related items just naturally fall away. I suppose someone might bring in a Disney watch if they're telling time, or a Lego creation of some kind that relates to, whatever, airplanes, but it's all a bit more focused.

[supervee]

Originally Posted by EXOLAX

Did I know that? It's possible I referenced an old post in my mind.... I'd be curious how much he actually shared about the parking lot rock versus a coveted item from home he had a personal attachment to.

LOL, for us share day was more like, "Quick! We forgot share day--grab something, anything!" I don't believe it was ever meaningful for DS. He always got so stressed out about it, and I am so happy for 2nd grade where they don't do this.

[junipermuse]

Originally Posted by TeresaZofia

Would this bother you?

My dd's preschool has "share day" every friday. Kids bring in a favorite toy or book and share it with the other kids. But, as it happens, it's not so much an exercise in sharing as it is an orgy of commercialism. Mattel couldn't dream up such an effective marketing strategy!

All the kids come with their Barbie this-that and their Disney Princess such-and-such and it's like a competition for who's got the coolest stuff. It really bothers me. So, now DD is coming home telling me about all the cool stuff the other kids have and how she wishes she had that stuff too.

All that said, you know kids really DO want to show off their things and it's nice to provide one day when kids can bring their things to school.

What do you think?

I have so many issues with this school...

I haven't read the rest of the thread, but had to comment because I used to teach preschool at a school where this was totally the way share day worked, but it was two times a week because not everyone came on Monday so the children who didn't, shared on Tuesday. Anyway it was totally an exercise in commercialism and I hated it. It also bothered me that as a teacher I saw it as my role to prepare the environment with beautiful, creative materials and then two out of five days every week all the children played with were Superheroes and my little ponies. I knew then (though I wasn't yet a parent) that if it were my child's school I would be very upset if my child were being bombarded by so much commercial junk every week. We don't watch a lot of tv and we don't buy licensed character toys etc. so I don't want my kid being filled with it for a large junk of their time at school. You know I don't mind superhero or princess play when it comes from the children's imaginations, but the commercial toys really bother me. It was a battle I fought often while I worked at the school, but I never won.


ETA: I just wanted to add that this was not just 15 min a day, twice a week. The circle time where we would do the sharing could easily take up to 40 minutes to get through all 16 kids. Then the share toys were open for freeplay for the rest of the morning (another hour and a half). Then for the children who stayed all day the did the whole sharing routine in the afternoon again. So really two full days ended up being devoted to "sharing"

[PlayaMama]

thanks for posting from a teacher's pov so those of us in here saying it's a problem don't seem so crazy

[je309]

Originally Posted by junipermuse

I haven't read the rest of the thread, but had to comment because I used to teach preschool at a school where this was totally the way share day worked, but it was two times a week because not everyone came on Monday so the children who didn't, shared on Tuesday. Anyway it was totally an exercise in commercialism and I hated it. It also bothered me that as a teacher I saw it as my role to prepare the environment with beautiful, creative materials and then two out of five days every week all the children played with were Superheroes and my little ponies. I knew then (though I wasn't yet a parent) that if it were my child's school I would be very upset if my child were being bombarded by so much commercial junk every week. We don't watch a lot of tv and we don't buy licensed character toys etc. so I don't want my kid being filled with it for a large junk of their time at school. You know I don't mind superhero or princess play when it comes from the children's imaginations, but the commercial toys really bother me. It was a battle I fought often while I worked at the school, but I never won.


ETA: I just wanted to add that this was not just 15 min a day, twice a week. The circle time where we would do the sharing could easily take up to 40 minutes to get through all 16 kids. Then the share toys were open for freeplay for the rest of the morning (another hour and a half). Then for the children who stayed all day the did the whole sharing routine in the afternoon again. So really two full days ended up being devoted to "sharing"

Just curious why you allowed this in your classroom if you thought it to be such a problem? As a teacher, I would think you'd have the ability to make this activity more of an educational one if you felt as though it was lacking.