The Monkey at the Book Fair

This past week I volunteered at my son's book fair that the school was hosting in connection with Parent-Teacher conferences. It's quite a remarkable scene- hundreds of books on shelves that take up most of the gymnasium, most of them nicely priced, designed to continue a child's love of learning and education. Of course, Scholastic Books isn't stupid, they, like most companies, are generally pretty good at not just selling something, but also marketing other things to make up for the great deal you get on these books. So stationed right by the check out at the book fair is a couple of tables' worth of trinkets: erasers, pencils, fake money, pointers with big hands at the end, posters of the Jonas brothers and Alex Rodriguez, you know, the other tools necessary for a child's quality education.

For the first half of my shift at the fair, my son did well. Perfectly content to come home with his $5 book on mummies (though the Flat Stanley book was a close second, because he knows nana and auntie teach on that book). The second half, the Scholastic marketing demons took over, and he became fixated on his trinket of choice: a stuffed monkey, complete with a carrying case. He used every angle to get me to buy the monkey:

• It's only a couple bucks more than the book (true).
• It comes with a book (kind of true, the book looked more like a pamphlet).
• I love it (of course you do).

I tried every which way to tell him that he was not coming home with the monkey, but he was welcome to come home with the book. He persisted at me until asking why I would let him buy a book but not a monkey (especially since it's only a couple buck difference). I surprised myself when I replied, "because I value your education, and I will spend money on that. I do not value you having another stuffed animal, of which you have 30 at home, and that won't contribute to your development so I will not spend money on that".

Now of course, we buy him and his siblings toys, trinkets, and other stuff. But when pressed, I admit that I value certan things, and will pay for certain things, over other things. My wife and I come from families that value education and that work in education. There's the story of my grandparents who took each of us grandkids out shopping for school supplies before they started kindergarten that furthers this value for me. I'm thankful for the moment to clarify that value for my son, and for me.