Homeschoolers and the Great Subway Debacleby Andrea Hermitt | More from this Blogger 29 May 2008 12:13 PM In the last two weeks, here has been a huge uproar in the homeschooling community. It seems that Subway, the restaurant that serves sandwiches, has snubbed homeschoolers by introducing a writing contest, and adding the stipulation that no homeschoolers were allowed to compete. Homeschoolers everywhere felt snubbed and insulted. Whether or not Scholastic, who sponsored the contest had a hand in the homeschool snub is another question altogether, but one should note that Scholastic sells learning materials to homeschoolers, while at the same time has "homeschooling" articles on its website that does more to discourage homeschooling than to encourage it. As a bit of a comic aside, homeschoolers have not failed to point out two major grammar/spelling errors on the promotional materials that have been released to the public. You would think that a curriculum publisher, or even the marketing people could get through one simple flyer sans spelling errors! A reasonable person could assume that homeschoolers were snubbed because the grand prize was something that was not meant for an individual. They however were apparently ignorant of the fact that homeschoolers are often involved in greater organizations that they could share the prize with, or they could even donate the school playground prize to an institution of their choice. Therefore, there were calls for boycotts, angry letters written, and most recently, HSLDA got involved with a letter asking to let homeschoolers enter this contest. Subway has been doing a bit of fire management in this situation, as in addition to the many angry letters and calls for boycotts that I have read; I have also come across several apologetic responses from the company. This morning, HSLDA posted an apology that promises to "provide an opportunity for even more kids to improve their fitness, we will soon create an additional contest in which homeschooled students will be encouraged to participate. (Because...) When the kids win, everyone wins!" Read more homeschool news here *Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask. * Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary? Learn more about Andrea Hermitt  Andrea Hermitt is a native New Yorker currently residing in GA. She has been married for over 16 years and has two teenage children. Relevanthomeschooling tags User Comments homescoolmom (18) 30 May 2008 01:47 AMOh My! But I hope that homeschoolers will be tolerant instead of angry. Scholastic and Subway are probably trying to help underfunded schools. That is an understandable goal, and any homeschooler would easily win. SeekingmyLord (92) 30 May 2008 09:04 PMAs I see it, Subway simply made a choice and I have, calmly, made a choice as well. I have written Subway explaining, because of their choice to specifically exclude homeschoolers from this contest, I have also made the choice that my family will not be visiting any of their restaurants until their next contest, which would include homeschoolers. I did not make this choice to join an organized boycott or to promote one any more than Subway made its choice to inflame the homeschooling community. It is simply an exercise of my right to choice. Community Tags contest, homeschoolers, subway Discuss this article
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