Channel One, the Anti-Commercial Principle, and the Discontinuous Ethos

Abstract

This article argues that administrators normally do a serious wrong when they contract with companies that market to children within schools. This is because in doing so, they violate the anti-commercial principle, which, in turn, is justified by the obligation schools have to facilitate the autonomy of their students. The author focuses particularly on Channel One but argues that numerous other standard features of school life are similarly problematic in the light of the values that justify the anti-commercial principle.