Subway has partnered with Scholastic in a writing contest. http://http//www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/kids/contest.aspx Normally this would not be a big deal. The grand prize winner gets $5,000.00 of athletic equipment for their school, a Scholastic gift basket for home, a $100.00 Subway gift card, and their story gets published in Scholastic's Parent-Child Magazine. Seems reasonable. Unfortunately, there is one sentence in the official rules that has pushed some hot buttons with homeschool parents and leaders. Contest is open only to legal US residents, over the age of 18 with children in either elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.
OK, do I think that it is just great and wonderful that there is a contest open to only traditionally schooled kids? Not really. But am I going to lose sleep over it? Am I going to get mad and boycott Subway? Am I going to write scathing letters to the executives at Subway and Scholastic and blast them for their open discrimination ? NO!!! Why not? I am not mad because it is their prerogative to open the contest to whomever they want. I am sure that Subway themselves could care less one way or the other how a child is educated. They only care about how a child is fed. (you know the whole "our subs are more filling, more nutritious, and have fewer calories than a happy meal" thing) Scholastic was created for teachers in classrooms. And yes, I do know that in recent years they have started offering specials to homeschoolers, but hey, they saw that would be the only way to get homeschooler's money. Am I saying that I think Scholastic is bad? No. I am just saying that their target audience is the public school system. Would I necessarily want my child's work to be in Parent-Child magazine? Not really. We have a subscription to it that we do not really care for. It is very, very secular, and very, very geared toward parents with kids in traditional school settings. (the subscription came free with something else we ordered)
Now, as far as discrimination goes: How many homeschoolers who all in a tizzy over this one little contest enjoy the use of things that are just for homeschooling? There are big things like scholarships available only to homeschoolers, contests open only to homeschoolers, smaller things like clubs just for homeschoolers, amusement parks that have special "homeschool day" events. If we keep crying discrimination when we get left out of something, how long is going to be before the the non-homeschoolers start doing the same?
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