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Are Educational Toys Just Commercial Products In Disguise?
Filed under: Opinions
The Scholastic Book Fair has stood the test of time. Just about every school has one -- not to mention those monthly Scholastic Book Club brochures you find crumpled in your child's backpack. Some things have changed, though. Over the past year there's been quite a lot of other stuff for sale along with the books.The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a consumer watchdog group, wants Scholastic to stick with Harry Potter books and leave out the action figures and wands. The group says that the venerable educational publisher is "using its classroom book clubs to push video games, jewelry kits and toy cars."
The most irritating item we've seen for sale was some Pokemon package that included a monthly subscription. Without reading the fine print, you buy it and your kid is signed up for a lifetime membership in something that seems only slightly less weird than being a Raëlian.
But maybe Scholastic is just doing what other toy makers have been doing for years -- sneaking commercial stuff into your house under the guise that said toy is "educational." Here are some examples (special thanks to some of my fellow parents for their input):
LeapFrog. Educational? Kinda. But a product that reminds you exactly what product you are using every time you turn it off? ("Thanks for learning with Leap Frog!") Can you say, corporate branding?
Ads that appear before videos. Why are kids forced to sit through ads for the Purple Dinosaur Whose Name We Do Not Speak before an Elmo DVD? Speaking of The Purple Dinosaur Whose Name We Do Not Speak, what exactly is so educational about him? The costume looks like something you could pick up at Wal-Mart, the voice is vaguely disturbing, and neither he nor his compatriot Baby Bop are really teaching anything. Somewhere, Mister Rogers weeps.
Baby Einstein. Once your kids are older than 18 months or so, memories of this series fade. But you know what stays? The logo. And the ending of every video: "Hi, I'm Julie Clark, founder of the Baby Einstein Company." Then she reads what sounds like a corporate mission statement. Clearly it worked. Clark sold her company to Disney in 2001 for an untold amount (millions). The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood doesn't like Baby Einstein either; although former President George W. Bush does -- he mentioned the products in a State of the Union speech in 2007.
Are there any toys your kids play with that you think are less educational than they appear? Send in your suggestions and we'll publish a list with your choices.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-13-2009 @ 3:27PM
John said...Dittydoodle also has a really good educational program called Lessons in the lyrics it seems to be the hottest item in my sons kindergarten class.
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2-13-2009 @ 3:36PM
drocelot said...There was a fantastic study trying to determine the efficacy of Baby Einstein videos. They were actually found to be detrimental to learning. As a result they've since stopped calling it a 'developmental tool'. The only benefit was if a parent or guardian watched the videos with the baby and narrated. Children are made smart by good parenting--social interaction and love. Spend your money on diapers and save the rest. Of course Bush would like Baby Einstein. He also thinks 'no child left behind' was a success.
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2-13-2009 @ 4:00PM
Karen said...Educational toys are essentially just toys. But I will speak up for LeapFrog a bit. I worked on a couple of projects with them, and they are serious about the education angle. They have actual teachers and other education specialists on staff and on consult to make sure the toy teaches good lessons, and part of the kid testing measures how much the kids absorb. That being said, I get really irritated by toys that occasionally just speak up to announce their presence, and a lot of LeapFrog stuff does that. While toys are toys and kids learn from everything, I'd rather my girl learn that "konnichiwa" means hello than just that some firemen have mustaches (the only lesson I can figure out from her ride-on fire engine). By the way, I was never on staff at the Frog, I don't have any financial stake in the company, etc.
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2-13-2009 @ 4:45PM
Amanda said...The Purple Dinosaur Whose Name We Do Not Speak...I couldn't stop laughing at that one! We always just called him "The Big Purple!" Before anyone asks, yes, we did ban TPDWNWDNS from our house early on. Ditto, SpongeBob or anything "faddy" like that. Even Sesame Street has been dumbed down to the point of insensibility lately...ugh!
We're pretty strict about our kids' toys. Nothing based on cartoons (have you noticed that a lot of the Frog's programs or the educational video games still use cartoons from popular shows in them instead of coming up with original characters, or is it just me?), toys that run on imagination rather than batteries (imagination costs a lot less money and has a lot more variety to it), and as little TV as possible, especially considering how most of today's programming is junk TV interrupted by commercials for junk food and junk toys. They don't seem to have come out the worse for it.
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