Schools Give in to Advertising

I had to laugh when I read this article from USA Today in which schools are selling space for corporate names through out the school. I realize that schools and business have been doing this for years with yearbooks but I do feel this is different. Unlike the yearbooks which kept the advertisements to the back of the annual, schools are allowing businesses to have name space right in the building including the principals' office. I guess I may be showing my age but I want my school to look like a school - not walls of advertisements like you see at stadiums. Instead of a learning environment, we are allowing corporations to erode the culture and climate of our learning institutions with their distracting media.

However, there is a right way to do this and more tasteful. I suggest that schools look at hospitals and zoos that have done a wonderful job of taking money from sponsors and turning the donatations into bricks or tiles. At the Binder Zoo in Michigan, donations are accepted and turned into a brick to acknowledge the sponsor without distracting the mission of the zoo.