Reading, Writing, Retailing

In fact, Friends Community School in College Park eliminated its Sally Foster campaign this year, asking parents instead for a flat donation of $50. "We had some people who loved Sally Foster," said Connie Belfiore, the school's interim headmaster. "But we had others who felt selling wrapping paper wasn't in keeping with the Quaker value of simplicity."

Schools go to varying lengths to motivate their young sellers. Sally Foster makes available iPods, digital cameras and other items as prizes for students who sell minimum amounts, although not all schools participate.

At Churchill Road, the PTA doesn't award prizes based on individual sales but does give a gift basket to the teacher who has the most students participate in the program. Markwart and her team set up a wrapping paper display in the school lobby and a table of samples at back-to-school night. Sally Foster advises that kids not sell door-to-door, but Markwart lets her three kids canvass friends on their cul-de-sac.

"We're not too aggressive," she said. "You don't want to drive the parents insane."

Sally Foster is largely a phenomenon of the elementary years. By the time students reach middle school, products such as magazine subscriptions are more common, and the sales pitch is often more intense.

At Tilden Middle School in Rockville, Assistant Principal Jerome Easton has pledged to eat three spoonfuls of canned dog food if 60 percent of the student body sells at least three magazine subscriptions. The school has used the annual subscription drive for years to buy computers and technology equipment, Easton said.

"I think it's working," he said. "Each day someone says, 'You're eating dog food, Mr. Easton. I sold a magazine.' "

The school kicked off the campaign with a schoolwide assembly in September. A representative of the sales company, Mid-Atlantic Fundraising, described the "Super Party" that would be held at the school in November for any student who sells at least five subscriptions. Those who sell 17 subscriptions, according to a flier for the party, will get to spin a "money wheel" and win from $3 to $500. Sellers of 21 subscriptions will get 10 seconds to grab all the air-blown dollars they can from the "Cash Vault," and selling 25 will bring a ride in Hummer stretch limousine.

Not all parents think the hard-sell approach is appropriate for a pint-size sales force.

Several recent discussions among e-mail group members have featured complaints about excessive prizes and class time being used for sales rallies and parties. Last week, Jane de Winter, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, sent a notice to PTA officers reminding them that "class time should not be used for fundraising."

In the case of fundraisers such as Tilden's, which is sponsored directly by the school, county education officials said principals are encouraged to not use class time but are not prohibited from doing so.

"It's distasteful, to say the least," said Anne LeVeque, the mother of a student at Takoma Middle School, which has a magazine subscription program similar to Tilden's.

At LeVeque's request, her daughter was allowed to skip the sales assembly and spent the period in the guidance counselor's office.

"They're taking class time away," she said. "They're doing an assembly where they do this high-pressure selling to the kids with these incredibly tempting things.

"When the school, as a publicly funded entity, has to do this kind of fundraising, something is broken in our system."