I couldn’t believe when I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about a school district in Seminole County, Florida that allowed McDonald’s to place advertisements on the report cards that went out to grade school children (K-5), promising free Happy Meals to students with good grades and/or attendance.
I agree completely with the article’s author, that there’s nothing wrong with rewarding good grades with a trip to McDonald’s or some other fast-food restaurant that the kids enjoy… But what I find troubling is to have a commercial product tied so directly and so blatantly to something like education–especially fast food in a society that is already plagued by obesity. It’s not even something so subtle as sponsoring playground equipment–it’s right there on the children’s report cards…