school poetry contests

[passthemanna]

how do y'all deal with these contests? the ones that flood the school with entry forms, and if your kid is a "finalist" you have the "opportunity" to buy a $$$ book that is only available to "finalists." And just about every person that enters becomes a finalist, so it's really not an accomplishment. I don't want to disappoint my son, but I also don't want to shell out $40 for a book that will probably just sit on a shelf I fell for one of these things when I was a kid, it was cool and exciting at the time. As I got older I felt stupid for falling for it and bad that my parents spent $$$ on the books. I threw them away because it was depressing (and the books were ridiculously huge).
How do I not buy the book and explain these lame "contests" without hurting my son's feelings and hurting his desire to try to do things??

[twoplustwo]

Who makes money off this deal - some random company? The school? Both? I don't understand why the school would allow this?

If it's a fundraiser for the school, Id be tempted to bring up the PTO about doing away with such fundraisers. We don't have them anymore. Our PTO just asks parents to write checks. They give a suggested amount but you can give more, less or none and in the end we spend way less than any fundraiser (bc all the money goes directly to the PTO). We do still have a fundraising carnival though. But no selling of stuff. My sisters kids school did that too (stopped all fundraisers, they are all in college now). Fundraisers are definitely going away from the schools I all know of. Time for your school to get on board with this fantastic trend.

I have never heard of such a thing - this poetry contest. Not as child myself nor my children have never received such a form. Someone is allowing this into the school. So my thought would be to find out why and complain about stopping it.

As far as telling your son, I would tell him the truth. The book is not the budget at this time. Maybe set up a time to take ds out for ice cream for working hard on poetry and emphasize his hard work over this external accolades.

[Quiteria]

I might also look into Lulu and such. I'd have to look again to remember the names, but there are a couple of on-demand printers that can bind your writing into a book, plus the photo companies that offer photobooks...if you take a few photos for illustrations, you can enter the writing as captions basically, as a text box on a scrapbooking page.

I would show him how he could make a whole anthology to share with grandparents if he wants, for much, much cheaper. If he never gets around to it, that's okay, too.

[passthemanna]

He loves making books, his sister too. I think that’s a great idea! It’s called appelley publishing rising stars. I don’t know who brings it into the school. I’m on the pto board and it’s not our deal! We are trying to move towards raffles and community based fundraising where everyone benefits and the school gets most of the profits.

[Quiteria]

http://www.lulu.com/create/books

https://photos3.walmart.com/about/ph...=Photo%20Books

[Soliloquy]

I'd explain that it's a fake contest, it's really just a self-publishing poetry book scam. Everyone who enters "wins" and gets their poem in a book for $40; no one except other entrants will ever see the book.

Who's Who Among American High School Students is also a scam (if that's still around). I refused to submit the request for personal data for my university alumni, too. I know they're hoping to sell alumni books. Anyone who went to university with me can find me on Facebook. No need for a book.

I'd see if there were any legit writing contests in your area. My local PBS station has one.

[passthemanna]

Lulu looks really cool! That might be good for their tubs of drawings I’ve kept . J really likes the Lulu book idea. I didn’t have the heart to tell him the poem book was a scam, just said “if we’re going to spend money we should have a book that is all yours!”

[MaybeGracie]

Originally Posted by passthemanna

how do y'all deal with these contests? the ones that flood the school with entry forms, and if your kid is a "finalist" you have the "opportunity" to buy a $$$ book that is only available to "finalists." And just about every person that enters becomes a finalist, so it's really not an accomplishment. I don't want to disappoint my son, but I also don't want to shell out $40 for a book that will probably just sit on a shelf I fell for one of these things when I was a kid, it was cool and exciting at the time. As I got older I felt stupid for falling for it and bad that my parents spent $$$ on the books. I threw them away because it was depressing (and the books were ridiculously huge).
How do I not buy the book and explain these lame "contests" without hurting my son's feelings and hurting his desire to try to do things??

I did the exact same thing as a kid. I submitted a poem, it was "chosen" to be published, my parents bought the huge book, and it felt very cool. Now in hindsight it's just embarrassing. Pretty sure my parents still have the book though.

That's a hard thing to have to explain to an enthusiastic young writer, though. I find it so odd that the school permits those forms to be made available to the students; in my case, I think I saw an advertisement for the "contest" in a magazine. I think the best approach would be to explain how it's a scam, and then help him to find legitimate writing contests to submit his work to instead. That way he still feels encouraged in this area, and he learns to be a cautious consumer as well. The Lulu book of his own self-published poems is a great idea too!

[Soliloquy]

Oh, just remembered I often see Black History Month writing contests in February. Your local children's librarian might know of one, too.

[JessicaTX]

Huh...my teacher entered a poem of mine in school and I "won" but my parents never bought the book. i also won puma shoes, a tshirt and tickets to a professional basketball game. I wonder if it was the same deal.

[passthemanna]

There are a few of these “contests “. 80-100% of people who enter “win” and then can purchase a book with all the poems for a ridiculous amount of money.

[Thursday's Child]

My son's poem was sent in to one by his 3rd grade teacher. I bought the book but it was only about $10 or so. Since the teacher did it I think it may have been more legit. I'm too lady to get out of bed and check the name. LOL
Our pastor had me email the poem to the church secretary who put it in the monthly newsletter. A lovely older gentleman at our church does calligraphy and did one for him of his poem. We framed it and keep it in the front room. That probably meant more than the book.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[2sunshines]

I've never seen of one of these so no personal experience BUT my first thought is that this could be an excellent learning tool for your child! Scams in the guise of "contents" and "winning" are unfortunately a huge part of our entire culture and something he will run in to countless times over his lifetime. So using this situation as an opportunity to help him identify these himself will benefit him dramatically long term.