Scholastic, the popular publisher of children's books, is a big business. It is a publicly-traded company with a market capitalization of $1.15 billion. Its CEO, Peter Warwick, collected a total compensation of $3,300,361 in 2023, and at least four other executives were paid over $1.3 million. Since 1981, Scholastic has hosted book fairs inside of schools. Today, according to
I am disgusted by the lack of courage that has become common across school boards, school administrations, library boards and now corporations. It has been well documented that the pressure they are feeling is coming from a, yes well funded, but very small minority. One right wing school board in Pa. has resorted to importing "support clappers" in the face of growing opposition by parents for book bans and other bigotry. Thousands of books have been banned based on complaints from 11 individuals. Moms for Liberty, aka Karens for Fascism, has been exposed. Why not try something new? Tell the bullies to f'k off and show some integrity. Heck, maybe the CEO of Scholastic could justify that $3M salary by standing up for his authors. Or not.
If this goes all the way to the Supreme Court, I wouldn’t put it past the majority upholding the segregating of the biography of their colleague Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. After all, that’s what this is, literary segregation, psychological separation of the races and other people they don't like.
I remember when my daughter was in elementary school she purchased a book called dash that was part of the dogs of world War II series. It ended up being a book about Japanese internment camps in the United States. Is she read it we talked about the history of that time and I showed her some other resources and made a connection with FDR and his dog fala. Even in fourth grade she could understand that people could do good things and bad things and America was that way too. She was proud to have her own book from the book fair and I was proud that we could afford for our kids to go buy something to read. I think it's shameful that these organized groups keep a child from getting a book about a supreme Court justice that looks like them
For 25 years, I worked at Scholastic and was proud that I did. Because it began in the classroom magazine business, the company was more kid-centered than most publishers, and championed teachers as well. Every year there was an advisory board meeting of progressive educators from around the country that writers and editors were required to attend. But the company suffered in the eighties from the beginnings of the right's influence on education (the Texas school board was a tough gate-keeper) and it didn't succeed in going public until 1992. The stock bounced around until an editor spotted a sure winner in JK Rowling's Harry Potter, and that really changed the culture. I won't write a treatise here, but it breaks my heart. When the CEO (and son of the founder) died during the pandemic, he left his majority stock to a former mistress, and it was tabloid fodder for a while. The place seems to have gone full-corporate, and I was bemused to see that the CEO failed to defend the use of A Farewell to Manzinar as an example of racist anti-Japanese sentiment. Oddly, a passage from that book had appeared in the first textbook I worked on at Scholastic—in the late 1970s.
I read that book with my daughter. She was very interested in understanding the time that my parents grew up in. I'm glad she was able to learn that history in our home with the help of some of the excellent scholastic books. I never learned that content when I was in school, or maybe I wasn't listening that day. It is a amazing and important story. I wrote a substack about it in fact
What a great substack, John! I'm afraid I can't be more than a free subscriber, because I am already over-committed, but you write about something we all need to know.
Good, I don't differentiate between paid subscribers and free subscribers. It was free for the longest time but I had some people who wanted to give me money for some unknown reason, it's not all that good.
Just a footnote: Scholastic pulled back from offering its collection of books dealing with race and gender issues as separate and optional, so at least they got the message and responded.
Judd and his team must continue this important revelatory work if we are to avoid being further mediocritized by the likes of Moms For Liberty and the loud Trump Wannabee DeSantis. News shows are mentioning but haven't shown the depth of understanding and passion needed to combat this nazi theocratic movement. I'm still appalled that Black scholars working for ETS on SAT tests allowed themselves to be intimidated by DeSantis. But, Scholastic? Is their CEO responsible for bowing to this ultra conservative unlettered and narrow-minded voice? Scholastic is successful because of their work to promote education and literacy, and a "bigot button" undermines their ground for being!
I don't know if those scholars actually were "intimidated by DeSantis." They may have been impressed by DeSantis' leaning into their self-hatred and saw in his apparatus, a means to satisfy their desire for wealth.
Tim Scott wasn't co-oerced into stating that the War on Poverty hurt Black folk worse than slavery did. Some people (those 3 especially) are messed up in that way. Add in Ben Carson for a set.
The first rule of dealing with bigots and fascism is to not obey in advance. Scholastic is doing just that. Maybe the decision makers at this company should read Timothy Snyder's ON TYRANNY. Oh, they've probably internally banned that book.
I remember many years ago my first job out of graduate school was for a curriculum development company that helped elementary teachers engaged students in a more learner centered way. Many of the things they taught are pretty commonplace in school now where students work in groups rather than being lectured to by the teacher at the front of the class. For some reason, Dr Dobson from the Christian broadcast Network picked up on a couple of lessons and decided that we were teaching about mysticism because there was a lesson where children closed their eyes and thought about something I don't remember what. It was a really stupid argument but they were able to energize people and communities to run for school board and get our curriculum tossed out. It was surprising the power of this one person with a microphone. There have been similar initiatives launched against mathematic curricula that has students thinking more broadly about numbers rather than just doing drill and practice with algorithms. It generates a lot of heat and communities
That is insane and unfortunately, par for the course. They find something to distort, amplify and run with it. The weak-minded among us fall for the okey-doke every GD time!!!
These loudmouth right wing christian nationalist racists are the MINORITY. The fact that Scholastic dares to do this means more than appeasement of the right. It means they have right wingers among their decision makers.
EVERYONE here myst file a complaint against Scholastic and pass it along. I couldn’t open the link in the story but I will copy/paste. I hope we will all formulate a comment in our own words. Don’t use the same 1st paragraph. It is more effective to receive a variety of individualized letters.
Judd, Thank you for the incredible work you do. I echo the comments below. Despite all that we've seen in recent years, I continue to be truly shocked by this kind of activity. As a mother of two, I often ask myself: who brought these people up? What's happened to having a backbone?
So basically, the right wing , Bible thumping zealots want to control what people read, therefore what to think , so indoctrination can be completed ! There should be NO banning of any book unless the bible is included in the banning ! Period , full -stop !! I don't want the Bible banned even though it falls into all the reasons that they ban certain books now ! So you can't ban books about two male penguins being parents or removing a book because the author's name spells " gay " ! This is stupidity !! But if these wing nuts are to be truly believed then they would be eagerly banning the Bible , wouldn't they ? So it isn't the subject matter per say , it's control and power over others just the same as controlling women's body autonomy and voter rights suppression!! It is all connected to make rules for certain minorities and persons who don't " fit " in to a certain mold ! If those that are spewing this bullshit say it's to protect the children well then , wouldn't there be more done regarding gun laws !! No that definitely is not what they want !! They want control and power , that's what they want ! And who is they , it is the old white men who lived in a time when they were the majority and rich and were respected but now , not so much ! So they use their monies and power to force their rules on the " we the people " lobbying politicians with their money to make these idiotic rules to continue to subjugate the people that they had subjugated in prior decades in order to live in the glory days of the KKK and other hateful ,bigoted and racist diatribes !! These same people are sueing companies that are hiring using diversity to enhance and enrich their business for the future but these people want to live in the past when they ( the whites ) ruled everything and everyone !! We , the people need to fight tooth and nail in order to fight against them or democracy is gone and Christofascist society will be what takes over ! Is that what you want ??
It was an off-the-cuff comment intended for someone else. If you must know, I was imitating a magat. Now I'll invite you to tend to your own affairs son.
Perhaps you could actually write something for your amazing substack. You sir are quite the author I see.
Thank you for this story on Scholastic. About time their "trusted" name that they sold to the American Coal Federation and have abused in the past be exposed. See examples here, including the former CEO, Dick Robinson defending their picture books that celebrated (and lied about) Trump while children from all over the U.S. appealed to Scholastic to stop providing free PR for someone perpetuating hate. Read: https://www.teachingforchange.org/scholastic-profits-from-censorship
I’ve been free-riding off paid subscribers to this newsletter for the longest time. Today, I finally signed up. This newsletter has been incredibly effective with a small staff and budget in investigating and elevating stories like this and often prompting meaningful action in response.
For $5/mo, I can get behind that! Think how much more they could do with double their current subscribers.
So, let's tax them like people. Or declare that since they are not DNA-based, they aren't people so aren't entitled to human rights. One or the other, but choose one! Which? Macht's mir nichts daran.
I am disgusted by the lack of courage that has become common across school boards, school administrations, library boards and now corporations. It has been well documented that the pressure they are feeling is coming from a, yes well funded, but very small minority. One right wing school board in Pa. has resorted to importing "support clappers" in the face of growing opposition by parents for book bans and other bigotry. Thousands of books have been banned based on complaints from 11 individuals. Moms for Liberty, aka Karens for Fascism, has been exposed. Why not try something new? Tell the bullies to f'k off and show some integrity. Heck, maybe the CEO of Scholastic could justify that $3M salary by standing up for his authors. Or not.
Good on you. I especially like the Karens for Fascism renaming.
I'm not crazy about that for obvious reasons.
🤣😂
If this goes all the way to the Supreme Court, I wouldn’t put it past the majority upholding the segregating of the biography of their colleague Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. After all, that’s what this is, literary segregation, psychological separation of the races and other people they don't like.
I remember when my daughter was in elementary school she purchased a book called dash that was part of the dogs of world War II series. It ended up being a book about Japanese internment camps in the United States. Is she read it we talked about the history of that time and I showed her some other resources and made a connection with FDR and his dog fala. Even in fourth grade she could understand that people could do good things and bad things and America was that way too. She was proud to have her own book from the book fair and I was proud that we could afford for our kids to go buy something to read. I think it's shameful that these organized groups keep a child from getting a book about a supreme Court justice that looks like them
For 25 years, I worked at Scholastic and was proud that I did. Because it began in the classroom magazine business, the company was more kid-centered than most publishers, and championed teachers as well. Every year there was an advisory board meeting of progressive educators from around the country that writers and editors were required to attend. But the company suffered in the eighties from the beginnings of the right's influence on education (the Texas school board was a tough gate-keeper) and it didn't succeed in going public until 1992. The stock bounced around until an editor spotted a sure winner in JK Rowling's Harry Potter, and that really changed the culture. I won't write a treatise here, but it breaks my heart. When the CEO (and son of the founder) died during the pandemic, he left his majority stock to a former mistress, and it was tabloid fodder for a while. The place seems to have gone full-corporate, and I was bemused to see that the CEO failed to defend the use of A Farewell to Manzinar as an example of racist anti-Japanese sentiment. Oddly, a passage from that book had appeared in the first textbook I worked on at Scholastic—in the late 1970s.
I read that book with my daughter. She was very interested in understanding the time that my parents grew up in. I'm glad she was able to learn that history in our home with the help of some of the excellent scholastic books. I never learned that content when I was in school, or maybe I wasn't listening that day. It is a amazing and important story. I wrote a substack about it in fact
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnroden/p/pickaxe-patriots?r=5ib1o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
What a great substack, John! I'm afraid I can't be more than a free subscriber, because I am already over-committed, but you write about something we all need to know.
Good, I don't differentiate between paid subscribers and free subscribers. It was free for the longest time but I had some people who wanted to give me money for some unknown reason, it's not all that good.
Just a footnote: Scholastic pulled back from offering its collection of books dealing with race and gender issues as separate and optional, so at least they got the message and responded.
Sorry I lied, this was the one about the camps
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnroden/p/a-good-childhood-stained?r=5ib1o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thank you for sharing your "real life" personal experience with Scholastic.
Judd and his team must continue this important revelatory work if we are to avoid being further mediocritized by the likes of Moms For Liberty and the loud Trump Wannabee DeSantis. News shows are mentioning but haven't shown the depth of understanding and passion needed to combat this nazi theocratic movement. I'm still appalled that Black scholars working for ETS on SAT tests allowed themselves to be intimidated by DeSantis. But, Scholastic? Is their CEO responsible for bowing to this ultra conservative unlettered and narrow-minded voice? Scholastic is successful because of their work to promote education and literacy, and a "bigot button" undermines their ground for being!
I don't know if those scholars actually were "intimidated by DeSantis." They may have been impressed by DeSantis' leaning into their self-hatred and saw in his apparatus, a means to satisfy their desire for wealth.
Tim Scott wasn't co-oerced into stating that the War on Poverty hurt Black folk worse than slavery did. Some people (those 3 especially) are messed up in that way. Add in Ben Carson for a set.
Let's not forget Clarence Thomas...
You will be to making zee mind loose in socket with such thoughts as these boychik!
Scholastic: Share every story, celebrate every voice. That is, unless you are bigoted and think diversity is bad. Just keep buying our books, OK?
Follow DaMoney! That never fails.
The first rule of dealing with bigots and fascism is to not obey in advance. Scholastic is doing just that. Maybe the decision makers at this company should read Timothy Snyder's ON TYRANNY. Oh, they've probably internally banned that book.
Alternate title: "Scholastic caves to the American Taliban"
I remember many years ago my first job out of graduate school was for a curriculum development company that helped elementary teachers engaged students in a more learner centered way. Many of the things they taught are pretty commonplace in school now where students work in groups rather than being lectured to by the teacher at the front of the class. For some reason, Dr Dobson from the Christian broadcast Network picked up on a couple of lessons and decided that we were teaching about mysticism because there was a lesson where children closed their eyes and thought about something I don't remember what. It was a really stupid argument but they were able to energize people and communities to run for school board and get our curriculum tossed out. It was surprising the power of this one person with a microphone. There have been similar initiatives launched against mathematic curricula that has students thinking more broadly about numbers rather than just doing drill and practice with algorithms. It generates a lot of heat and communities
That is insane and unfortunately, par for the course. They find something to distort, amplify and run with it. The weak-minded among us fall for the okey-doke every GD time!!!
"Money, It's a hit.
Don't give me that do-goody goody BS!
I'm in the hi-fidelity, first-class travelling set
And I think I need a Lear jet!"
Thus sayeth all of the cowardly CEO's who would shrink from "doing the right thing" for money.
These loudmouth right wing christian nationalist racists are the MINORITY. The fact that Scholastic dares to do this means more than appeasement of the right. It means they have right wingers among their decision makers.
EVERYONE here myst file a complaint against Scholastic and pass it along. I couldn’t open the link in the story but I will copy/paste. I hope we will all formulate a comment in our own words. Don’t use the same 1st paragraph. It is more effective to receive a variety of individualized letters.
Judd, Thank you for the incredible work you do. I echo the comments below. Despite all that we've seen in recent years, I continue to be truly shocked by this kind of activity. As a mother of two, I often ask myself: who brought these people up? What's happened to having a backbone?
So basically, the right wing , Bible thumping zealots want to control what people read, therefore what to think , so indoctrination can be completed ! There should be NO banning of any book unless the bible is included in the banning ! Period , full -stop !! I don't want the Bible banned even though it falls into all the reasons that they ban certain books now ! So you can't ban books about two male penguins being parents or removing a book because the author's name spells " gay " ! This is stupidity !! But if these wing nuts are to be truly believed then they would be eagerly banning the Bible , wouldn't they ? So it isn't the subject matter per say , it's control and power over others just the same as controlling women's body autonomy and voter rights suppression!! It is all connected to make rules for certain minorities and persons who don't " fit " in to a certain mold ! If those that are spewing this bullshit say it's to protect the children well then , wouldn't there be more done regarding gun laws !! No that definitely is not what they want !! They want control and power , that's what they want ! And who is they , it is the old white men who lived in a time when they were the majority and rich and were respected but now , not so much ! So they use their monies and power to force their rules on the " we the people " lobbying politicians with their money to make these idiotic rules to continue to subjugate the people that they had subjugated in prior decades in order to live in the glory days of the KKK and other hateful ,bigoted and racist diatribes !! These same people are sueing companies that are hiring using diversity to enhance and enrich their business for the future but these people want to live in the past when they ( the whites ) ruled everything and everyone !! We , the people need to fight tooth and nail in order to fight against them or democracy is gone and Christofascist society will be what takes over ! Is that what you want ??
Wait wait wait just a doggone minute there Kimberlee Avery Wilkins!
You LIbRELZ are the one INDUCTINATIN dammit. We just want to follow the CRIHSTaIN PRINZEEPLeZ country was founded upon you see?
WOW--- you talk and typewrite like a real Southern person for sure-------NOT TO SMART----- yep ---- a real Southern person!.
It was an off-the-cuff comment intended for someone else. If you must know, I was imitating a magat. Now I'll invite you to tend to your own affairs son.
Perhaps you could actually write something for your amazing substack. You sir are quite the author I see.
Good day.
Thank you for this story on Scholastic. About time their "trusted" name that they sold to the American Coal Federation and have abused in the past be exposed. See examples here, including the former CEO, Dick Robinson defending their picture books that celebrated (and lied about) Trump while children from all over the U.S. appealed to Scholastic to stop providing free PR for someone perpetuating hate. Read: https://www.teachingforchange.org/scholastic-profits-from-censorship
Thank you for the link. It’s good to get more info supporting this story.
"It's money that matters." Randy Newman really nailed it.
I’ve been free-riding off paid subscribers to this newsletter for the longest time. Today, I finally signed up. This newsletter has been incredibly effective with a small staff and budget in investigating and elevating stories like this and often prompting meaningful action in response.
For $5/mo, I can get behind that! Think how much more they could do with double their current subscribers.
Corporations are people. Cowardly, selfish people.
So, let's tax them like people. Or declare that since they are not DNA-based, they aren't people so aren't entitled to human rights. One or the other, but choose one! Which? Macht's mir nichts daran.