I do not brainwash my students.

Giving this article was part of an exam. The purpose was to assess if students understood what is involved in using argumentative language and persuasive language. I have, of course, used many other texts during the year. Judging by my students responses (to Question 3 (responses above, and the other questions)) they have a pretty good grasp of working out the difference between something that purports to be “balanced, independent” and what is obviously argumentative.

We also studied narrative language and informative language - the latter, especially, had texts that would fall into your beloved category of “balanced, independent”.

As an aside, I suppose I/one could make the argument that my piece was independent (since I am not beholden to any stakeholder interest - Tesco, SuperValu, Irish Independent, etc.) and I/one could also make the argument that it is balanced, since it gives a counter to the usual spin than students are fed about these voucher schemes.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Yours in Education,
Mark Conroy.

To provide your students with your own (very biased) article/open letter for an exam seems to me to be close to brainwashing the children. I can’t see how you’re surprised that they are all accusing tescos of manipulating parents and teachers in their responses when the article is so one-sided.

Why not provide them with a balanced, independent article to consider for their exam? That way you may offer them a better chance of making their own minds up.

Chris

Jon,

Thanks for your comment. I’m giving just a quick reply as the author of the original post (realising that your comment was directed primarily at Niall).

I am not sure how you would decide how much Tesco (or any other business interest) should give as a donation. To be honest, I don’t think any business interest would have to give a donation if our education system was properly funded! Nor do I think any businesses should be involved in our education system in this manner. I think my students also agree with me as you can see from this post. Perhaps they could simply reduce their prices and let people decide where their money should be put.

Would people really remember they gave the money each year? I’m not sure that they would, but, then again, should people have to remember? If giving donations is supposed to be philanthropic why would it matter if it is noticed? If it is only to gain brand loyalty and recognition then it becomes nothing more than another part of the business plan, “something we need to, unfortunately, spend money on to make us look good and garner us customers”.

Your final point/question is too hypothetical to merit a reply.

Regards,
Mark Conroy.

So how would they decide how much to give in this one of cheque? Pick a random number? And would people really remember they gave, especially if they did it every year?

And even if the government did put more money into education and in theory they didn’t need any more equipment - would schools ever turn down more equipment?!?

Why do ‘we’ as a nation have to knock the winner all the time.

If the government spent the right amount of mmoney on schools and provide the right equipment to enable our up and coming generations to recieve the education they need to stay in touch then this sort of campaign would not need to happen.