Play once meant play.
Now it means a marketing opportunity for publishing giant Pearson.
As blogger Chris Cerrone discovered and Valerie Strauss reported, the popular (and very pricey) American Girl brand has released a new doll that has a little Pearson math book in her backpack.
Surely, the workbook is aligned with Common Core!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Words fail me.
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I suppose she is registered for warranty purposes at inBloom?
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THAT is truly disgusting! Pearson is out of control. Hoping NO ONE BUYS IT.
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I kind of want one, I’m afraid, for the dolly I have put away in a trunk. It would be a memento of these battles, for some long-future descendant. She has an assortment of school supplies from the past couple of centuries, and artifacts like WWII homefront swag, and a tiny rosary and menorah, and the Amelia Earhart aviator hat … and a working parachute.
I wonder if there are miniature scantrons? I have to find some little green shoelaces, of course.
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But does she come with a voucher to help her “escape” her “failing” local school?
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American Girl always gave me the creeps.
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Where’s Chucky when you need him!!
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Things are getting worse than I thought. Will the inclusion of the math book help the little girls, who own the dolls, pass the high stakes tests to which the standards align?
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If art imitates life, this must be a sad spin about life imitating retail. Check this out.
The Atlantic had an article recently about the wayward direction American Girl Dolls have taken since their sale to Mattel. They were originally founded by a former schoolteacher and were accompanied by rich, historical stories about strong girls overcoming crises like the Depression.
The Atlantic lamented Mattel retiring the historical characters in favor of superficial contemporary girls, “These characters represent more than just the original characters of an iconic brand—their archiving represents a lost sensibility about teaching girls to understand thorny historical controversies and build political consciousness.
A perfect analogy to what Pearson seems to doing to our real girls.
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Here’s the Atlantic article: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/american-girls-arent-radical-anymore/275199/
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Well, somebody needs to write the history series for today’s below-the-poverty-line American Girl …
Meet Daniella, maybe. She’d be applying for foodstamps when both her parents are laid off… Daniella Learns a Lesson … Daniella’s Surprise … Happy Birthday Daniella … Daniella Opts Out … Changes for Daniella.
Yes, changes are coming, Daniella. Hold on.
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Priceless, Chemtchr, priceless.
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well said, chemtchr!
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I keep laughing at Daniella Opts Out
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chemtchr – History does repeat itself and there is a historical American Girl doll that covers the depression. Her name is Kit and it is my daughters favorite. Food stamps/vouchers aren’t specifically covered in the story, however, everything else is. Dad lost job, had to take in boarders to help pay rent, Kit had to go door to door to sell eggs because no money. “Hobo’s in food lines to get a meal. Kit’s mother made her clothes out of cloth flour sacks because they couldn’t buy any new. Also, Kit’s best friend had to move away because they lost their home…the bank took it away. All of this stuff was covered beautifully in the books and they also did a great job on the movie. I am so sorry to see them do away with historical girls…history can be fun….especially with the girls they have covered in their line (and they have covered many!). The books/dolls/accessories/movies, bring history to life and helped my daughter greatly! I even learned a thing or two!
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Karen, thank you! You so eloquently articulated exactly what I was thinking. I quoted you on a post on the American Girl Facebook page; I hope that was alright. If it wasn’t, please let me know and I will remove it immediately!
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Just fine LIesl. The more people who give this more thought the better.
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Sure enough
http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/item/id/226560/ctc/SI
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Well for whatever it’s worth the AGD musical instruments come with miniature versions of the Hal Leonard band essentials books used by most American public school bands. I think it is less a statement about Pearson and the doll and more that this math book is probably widely used now and AGD wants the dolls to have miniature of what real girls are using.
If 45 states use CCSS, this should not not be a shock. I am seeing CCSS stuff everywhere. Even Scholastic.
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I can live with this. The message is “Girls do math.” It could be worse; the textbook certainly doesn’t need to be branded. But anything that normalizes mathematics for girls is a plus (ahem) for me.
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Yes at least it’s not like the Barbie doll that said “math is hard.”
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That should be “It could be better…” not “worse.”
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It used to be the Scott Foresman math book. Did Pearson buy them out?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Girl-Doll-1999-Retired-School-Gear-Supplies-MATH-BOOK-ONLY-mint-/141127883578?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20dbe09b3a
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Pearson has long owned SF. Most of the formerly independent textbook publishers are now imprints of one of three companies–Pearson, McGraw-Hill, or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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I figured that, since they own Prentice Hall, too. So, this is really nothing new. We’ve just started noticing more.
My district paid $110 per copy on our chemistry texts, on the argument it included the online version, but now that they bought iPads it turns out we also have to buy an app too.
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Is she dressed in her KIPP uniform?
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Someone scream “Recall!”..this is so ridiculous that I have to see it to believe it. What kid would want that?
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Marketing, marketing, marketing!
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Although I see the marketing aspect as negative, I think what AG was going for was something that girls would recognize. Maybe AG wanted to make the dolls book look like a book that a majority of their pre-teen clients would recognize and they sought out the Pearson giant. I think its kind of cute and it is something I would have loved as a 9 or 10 year old. So realistic.
I wish it wasn’t branded, but from a girls standpoint, it does make it more realistic.
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American Girl is also releasing the David Coleman doll, complete with glasses for “close reading”, a suitcase full of non- fiction books, and when you pull the string, he says: “No one gives a $&@! what you think!”
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I was going to buy one for my Godchild , but she opted out!
Marge
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Now, that’s the one I want! I also want the accompanying profiteers who pull his string.
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LOL
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Thank you for the belly laugh!
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Should folks like me who buy from the company write a note saying that I will not buy from them any more because they are connected to Pearson? That could be an effect marketing strategy.
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Sad, but hardly a complete surprise. All of your comments are funny!!! In reality, I might have been interested as a child in having one if I had not taken a Pearson’s Common Core test and been informed that I was a failure, but not if I had been in that situation, as many of New York’s little girls have.
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Mattel has cheapened the brand. This is the 2nd year in a row I am buying AG products because of Bitty Baby. I hope Bitty Baby won’t have the Pearson test-prep nursery edition next year. Of course they could supplement the brand by making angry mom dolls.
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This co. lives in a Fantasy World anyway so this is par for the course!
Where is the Princess we need to Kiss the Sleeping Giant and bring them back to reality?
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But, seriously, can somebody in this network produce a little storybook for our girls, about an American Girl’s fourth grade year, when she and her classmates opt out of the spring tests?
Their teacher would keep reading storybooks with them, and doing math, and geography projects, hands-on science and songs and art and PE? They can start a garden project in the spring, and all the community members and parents can meet them there on test day.
Surely somebody can produce some little green shoelaces?
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American Girl meet All-American boy Chucky.
Chucky meet American Girl
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One of the commenters at the Strauss site defends Common Core thus: “The Common Core was designed partially to help students. In the past, students moving state to state or even district to district ran into issues on what had already been taught and learned at that school, resulting in students falling behind.” I couldn’t help picturing Okies moving from state to state, feet swinging from the railcars, kids hanging onto those Pearson math books.
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Sounds like a Pearson marketing strategy. I’m guessing they paid AG for the privilege of being in her backpack, and it benefits AG as well, for the reasons noted above (girls do math). Probably less objectionable than the Barbie boobs of my childhood, or the gender biased toy marketing that we still see, but still…. bad timing, AG!
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I’m thinking it’s a historically accurate accessory for an American girl living in the 2010s. At least she’s not carting around a test! Thinking ahead to next year’s edition of this product package, the backpack could have a bottle of anxiety meds and a date book outlining her appointments with her tutors and psychotherapist.
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Yes — and will her T- shirt sport a scarlet 1; 2; 3; or 4 Depending on her test score??????? And will her owner have a little look alike outfit??
Marge
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LOL!
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How grotesque!
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The entity that can imbed a self-interested vision of “normal” in our childrens’ consciousness can control the world. Pearson is right on track with it’s girl doll and backpack of Pearson math–a disquieting equation for our future!
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However; the fascinating suburban mommies & daddies will BOYCOTT purchase of this doll.
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Save the girls. Egads…this is reprehensible.
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That is actually the old math book! My kids would love to have those cute animals back and get a real textbook!!
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Next Pearson will be marketing their own Common Core breakfast cereal:
“Hey kids! Tell your parents you want COMMON CORE CRUNCH…”
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This makes me sick. My daughters- now grown up- loved American Girl dolls. Along with the Math book, the doll’s backpack should include a lot of boring, irrelevant, ambiguous test prep material. It should also include her latest data. . .I mean test results.
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The next American Girl Doll should contain a book entitled: Vulture Philanthropists Control Your Thoughts, Your Mind, Your Future
Marge
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