Archive for December, 2009

The Fine Print

My kids’ daycare sends home flyers every so often advertising this program or that that our kids can participate in beyond what the normal tuition fee covers – pull-out classes for music, gymnastics; that sort of thing.  The other day a flyer came home advertising a dance class.  There was nothing unusual about it, but as I scanned the legalese at the bottom (as I always do), the last line popped out at me:

I…release any photos taken of my child in class to be used for <company name> media outlets.

I didn’t see an opt-out checkbox for parents who don’t want their kids’ pictures being taken and put on flyers, pamphlets, or worse – THE INTERNET.  It was just, “if you want to participate, this is how we do”.

I understand that’s a slippery slope to head down, but my question is less legal than philosophical in nature – what happens between the pre-K level, where this is an accepted practice (and presumably unchallenged, though I can’t be sure) and the K-12 level, where most of us are dealing with hysteria regarding publishing student work (including pictures) online?  It’s OK for our kids to unwittingly advertise for corporations but not to promote their own work & interests?

Words Mean Things

Seen on the front page of a test protocol this morning: two sections for collecting demographic information on a student.

Section I (to be filled out by professional):

Section II (to be filled out by teacher):

I’ll just leave this here for you to do with what you will.