Are Teachers Aware of Propaganda in Sponsored Teaching Aids?

Abstract

Teachers use a great many teaching aids which are sponsored by various organizations. Many of these materials are in the form of pamphlets, posters, films, and similar media. Business organizations, particularly, are provid ing an increasing number of such materials each year, and many have special school service departments devoted exclusively to the development and distri bution of such materials. Other organizations, such as labor, patriotic , or religious groups, also produce teaching aids. A large number of sponsored materials are excellent classroom aids, but many may not be desirable. This study was concerned with those materials which may be undesirable because of their propaganda content. If sponsored pamphlets which are considered for classroom use often con tain propaganda, it is reasonable to expect the teacher to be skilled in detect ing and analyzing this propaganda so that he may deal with it in some manner. Such a need is emphasized, for example, by the State of California Education Code (4) which states that no publication of any character whose purpose is to spread propaganda is to be used in the schools.