Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Subway and Scholastic Discriminate against Homeschoolers

Subway must think that homeschoolers can't write. Either that, or they are just plain discriminating against home schooled children. Subway has a contest called Every Sandwich Tells a Story, open to United States school children; um, I mean school children who are not home schooled. Take a look at their eligibility requirements:

2. ELIGIBILITY. Contest is open only to legal residents of the United States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted. Employees and members of their families of Scholastic and Subway, their parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and their advertising, promotion and production agencies are not eligible to enter. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

I see the contest is sponsored by Scholastic, and we all know that Scholastic makes their money by plying elementary schools with their catalogues on a monthly basis. No wonder homeschoolers are being discriminated against. Scholastic isn't capable of tapping into that market.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I should think homeschoolers would have better things to do with their time!
Maryoz

ignorant redneck said...

It's not discrimination against homeschooled kids. It's done in fairness to institutionaly schooled kids.

After all, every homeschooled kid I'v met has been far superior in writing skills to their institutional counterparts. It would make the competition unfair.:P

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments...Can either of you honestly say this wasn't discriminatory???? If the rules had read "Children of color not eligible" or "Children with physical disabilities not eligible" people would be screaming a different tune. How about a little support for people who are taking a proactive hands on approach to their children's educations?

paramedicgirl said...

I'm with you Kristen, although I do see IR's point that homeschooled kids are brighter than those who are schooled at the expense of the government. Programs like Seton Home Study School are far superior to anything I've ever seen in a public school.

Anonymous said...

While I can understand your point of view and frustration, to equate homeschooling with discrimination of color or disability is way off the mark. People don't choose to be a certain color or to be disabled...thats the difference.

paramedicgirl said...

You make a good point, Mark. What is happening here is a blatant discrimination against homeschooled kids because Scholastic doesn't make any money off them. They make a huge fortune off elementary school kids in North America, though.

It's also a slur to homeschoolers, like saying they aren't good enough to enter the contest. Or maybe like IR said, they really are afraid that homeschooled kids will many areas of the contest.

ignorant redneck said...

MY tounge was firmly in cheek when I posted--but I was also kidding on the square!

The NEA and similar organizations hate homeschooling for two reasons:
1--the kids are generally, like 80% of the time, superior in academic achievment to institutionaly schooled kids.

2--The Professional associations of educators have iexplicitly stated that part of their agenda is to shape the social attitudes of kids, and homeschooling is lagely a movement in reaction to that.

I do think it's a deliberate slap to the face for homeschooling.