学校筹款活动和将孩子变成销售人员背后的秘密世界

Fundraising is a staple of the school experience in the U.S. There's an assembly showing off all the prizes kids can win by selling enough wrapping paper or chocolate to their neighbors. But it's pretty weird, right?

Why do schools turn kids into little salespeople? And why do we let companies come in and dangle prizes in front of students?

We spend a year with one elementary school, following their fundraising efforts, to see how much they raise, and what the money goes to.

The school – Villacorta Elementary in La Puente, California – has one big goal: To raise enough money to send every single student on one field trip. The whole school hasn't been able to go on one in three years.

We find out what the companies who run school fundraisers do to try to win a school's business. And we find that this bizarre tradition is ... surprisingly tactical. That's on today's episode.

Transcript:
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197958355