Junior Achievement inspires kids to be well-behaved ornamentation
I’m having a heckuva time separating the debacle that was last Thursday’s Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest (JAUM) Business Hall of Fame event from what must surely be a good organization.
Even though I was skeptical about my daughter’s participation in this event, my mind was open enough to allow her to go to have a good time with her friends, participate in a “grown-up” dinner, and meet — and maybe learn something from? — some of the most prominent current and former business leaders in Minnesota.
Maybe I just don’t know enough about JA. But you’d think an organization with the message “Let their success be your inspiration“ would have allowed the invited children — eighteen in all — to see and hear the life stories of the successful businessmen. So I don’t quite understand why the children were hidden away in a back room while the inductees spoke to a crowd of adult employees, families, and friends.
And certainly JA didn’t Invest. Involve. Inspire. these kids by keeping them at the event for five hours with absolutely no planned activities. Wouldn’t JA, an organization whose primary purpose is to work with children, know that a group of ten-year-olds will not be able to wait quietly for hours on end with nothing to do?
And I can’t imagine that their goal of using hands-on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life would mean offering a group of very tired and bored children money — ten dollars each — to settle down and be quiet.
One might look at that evening and surmise that JA isn’t about the children at all — that it is really about the corporations who donate and send in their employees as volunteers. But to what end? To indoctrinate children into their corporate idea of success? To secure their future workforce? Is that what JA means by their goal to create “good employees, consumers, and citizens?”
I’m not sure what my daughter learned from the evening. I know she was excited and nervous standing in front of four hundred attendees and presenting the award to Dave Koch (former CEO, Graco, Inc.) on behalf of JA. She looked darling — her fancy dress, new white sandals, and a beautiful smile on her face. She was a cute contrast to the towering blue-suited Koch, who bent down and gave her a peck on the cheek. The crowd loved it.
What an achievement.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:19 am
“To what end? To create ‘good employees, consumers, and citizens’?”
You said a mouthful there, Two Knives. Good employees, good consumers, and good citizens sit quietly with their hands folded at the kids’ table, where they eat mac ‘n’ cheese, while Carnivores in Suits do their important work over where the grown-ups eat.
Sounds like hands-on experience to me after all.
May 8th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Interesting take. I was at the event, as well, though apparently viewing from a different perspective. I was there because my company contributes to Junior Achievement, and I thought it was a well-run event to honor donors. As far as I can tell, nonprofits need funding to operate, and I think that’s what events like this are all about. =) And some of the speakers you found gag-worthy in your other posts are actually heavy hitters that a lot of us were excited to hear speak. I guess it’s always good to be aware of other perspectives though. Thanks!
May 8th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Curious, thanks for reading and commenting. You are absolutely right — it was a fundraiser and certainly there is nothing wrong with that. But it’s not the kind of event that kids should be involved in — at least not at that time of the evening.
Stan Hubbard went above and beyond by acknowledging the kids directly and coming over to shake their hands. It was a classy move and I appreciated it.
I’m also happy to hear that the fiasco with the kids didn’t affect the overall event — I wasn’t sure if the audience was aware of it or not.
TK
May 9th, 2007 at 3:26 am
interesting thoughts!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:03 am
[…] Reminds me a bit of our experiences with Junior Achievement, which brings me to this year’s lesson. It topped even last year’s. […]
April 5th, 2009 at 11:58 am
As a disillusioned Junior Achievement employee, I must say that Two knives observation about the organization is absolutely spot on. JA is a corporate propaganda/indoctrination outfit to convince generations of young people that the corporate agenda is good and highly desirable.
Corporations pour money into the organization because the curriculum and experiences do not encourage young people to explore capitalism or corporations with a critical eye. They also get a foothold in local schools to push their brands onto young, open, rceptive minds.
The volunteers mean well, but are generally uninspiring and ill equipped to deal with the challenges in resource starved schools and communities. They are not helped by the curriculum which is poorly written and has obviously not been tested on any youth focus groups.
The students are never at the center of the organization’s focus. The corporations are at the center of everything, because this organization’s funding is 70-80% reliant on corporate funding to survive.
Young people are used as pawns to attract corporate dollars to maintain this global corporate propaganda machine. They prey on under privileged communities pretending that they are helping young people to succeed by creating economic empowerment opportunities for young people. There is no serious evaluation of what young people are learning and exactly how it is helping them to improve their lives. The truth is, JA stopped being effective when it expanded from an after-school HS enterprise program into a K-12 “let’s focus on everything and see what sticks” type of program. The organization lives and breathes by how many students are reached…not by what students are learning. If you dig deep enough, (which isn’t too deep) you will find that JA there is no proof that JA has any impact on young people’s lives.
The infrastructure of the organization is sexist to the core and the organization lacks the true diversity in leadership that a global organization should have. All you have to do is look at the make-up of the leadership and you get the picture. These people are stuck in the 1950’s. It’s the last bastion of white male privelege.
The curriculum is antiquated, unexciting and uninspiring. The organization is notorious for wasting donor money on annual self congratulatory back slapping conferences which neither further the mission nor offers value to the particpants.
Don’t fall for the propaganda of this organization. Check out what I am saying for yourself. You will find that all observations made about this organization are true.