children’s literature

Scholastic drops industry-funded pro-coal 4th-grade curriculum, but still maintains other programs that threaten public health

Last week, I posted an item about Scholastic, Inc.’s partnership with the coal industry to produce “The United States of Energy,” an energy curriculum that promoted coal without disclosing its considerable public-health and environmental drawbacks.  The controversy over this partnership, publicized widely by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, went as far as a chiding …

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Can Six-year-olds Understand the Tragedy of the Commons?

Maybe not.  But perhaps eight-year-olds can. Last Wednesday morning, I showed up for my weekly library volunteering at my daughter’s first grade class.  School cutbacks meant that the librarian wasn’t there, so the teacher, another parent and I had to make do.  The display was about Earth Day, since I had to find a book to read …

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