The contest
By now, the Subway sandwich shop marketing division must know how bad of a decision it was on the part of whichever wonk who decided to expressly exclude homeschoolers from their latest contest. Email lists may not be utterly aflame over the exclusion, but there is more than one pissed-off homeschool mom spreading the word. I’ve been reading their emails.
Subway contest: Every Sandwich Tells A Story
Enter the Every Sandwich Tells a Story Contest for a change to win great prizes for your child’s school!
Here’s what you could win:
1 Grand Prize Winner:
– Athletic equipment for your child’s school ($5,000 value)
– Scholastic Gift Bastket (sic) for your home
– SUBWAY Card ($100 value)
– See your story published on www.subwaykids.com and in Scholastic Parent and Child magazine.6 Runners-Up:
– Scholastic Gift Basket
– SUBWAY Card ($50 value)…
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) 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. [bold added]
To be technical about it, according to this, homeschoolers in the “Untied” States are the only ones ineligible. Homeschoolers in the “United” States should be able to enter. But, as we all can recognize, I digress, with my tongue firmly in my cheek.
The presumed rationale for the exclusion is that the grand prize is athletic equipment for a school and that “home schools” aren’t organized schools and that the equipment is intended for a community, not a family.
My own point of view is that the way the contest’s rules were worded is another indication of the increasing acceptance that children are creatures of school. This contest — a story writing contest — includes children who are “PreK.”
Do I really have to point out that three and four year old children generally do not compose “beginning, middle and end” stories?
Also, this indicates the trend that no longer are young children pre-schoolers, but they are pre-Kindergarten. Kindergarten itself used to be not only optional in the United States, but was considered a precursor to formal schooling. In German, the word Kindergarten comes from the words for ‘children’ (Kinder) and ‘garden’ (Garten). In meaning, Kindergarten is equivalent to “play school.” Note that in German the American use of Kindergarten is not der Kindergarten, but rather die Vorschule — preschool.
kindergarten chiefly (Brit.) der Kindergarten
kindergarten chiefly – for children between four and six years (Amer.) die Vorschule
nursery der Kindergarten
playschool der Kindergarten
nursery school chiefly (Brit.) der Kindergarten
play school der Kindergarten
Obviously, in the United States, now both Kindergarten and what used to be called preschool are now ‘school.’
For older ‘school aged’ children, legislation tries to tie driving licenses to school attendance, sports for teens is all but wedded to schools, and daytime curfews during the ‘school year’ are in effect when school is in session. (I’ve never figured out why there aren’t daytime curfews on weekends or during the summer.) In our collective mind, children who are ‘school aged’ belong to a school. That’s just the way it is. Schools = children’s place of duty. Period. The Subway contest seems to reflect some of that line of thinking, which isn’t to malign Subway, but merely to reflect on our national mind-set.
The fallout
It’s too late to fix the wrongheaded concept that parents educating their children without the intercession of an institution are doing so as a school. That water is not only under the bridge, but it has gone out to sea, evaporated, and rained down multiple times.
Regardless of state laws that pigeonhole homeschooling under their respective private school laws, and regardless of whether parents officially/actively/or purposely ‘homeschool,’ all parents are their children’s primary educators even if what is ‘taught’ isn’t the least bit ‘educational.’ This is just family life. Lessons are learned, if only through example, regardless of their worth. Still, families in which children are expressly educated are not ‘schools,’ so there is some logic to the exclusion by Subway.
Despite the logic, it was psychologically stupid to apply that logic so abruptly: No home schools will be accepted. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot. Those ‘million homeschoolers’ we always hear about equal how many potential customers?? Either the Subway marketing department is tone deaf, or somebody in the head shed doesn’t like homeschoolers.
Non-homeschoolers often complain that homeschoolers don’t live in the ‘real world,’ but the statement that “no home schools will be accepted” indicates significant corporate ignorance about that ‘real world’ where real homeschooling families shop with real money.
J.C. Penney learned that in 2001.
Michelle Malkin, August 10, 2001
Publik skool biggotz
Until this week, Texas-based retailer J.C. Penney thought the “HOME SKOOLED” T-shirt was cool enough to peddle on its racks in the kiddie section. Only after a heated e-mail and phone campaign by home schooling parents did the department store chain send a notice to J.C. Penney stores nationwide Wednesday advising them to remove the T-shirts. “It wasn’t our intent to sell an item that is offensive,” a company spokesman told the Associated Press.
The fix
One of the more obvious work-arounds that the developers of the Subway contest could have included for homeschooling parents who entered on their children’s behalf, was for the equipment to be donated to a local park, or to a school of the winner’s choice. Problem solved — good will all around. Too bad that it didn’t play out that way.
I look forward to seeing how the Subway wonks handle their self-inflicted wound.
HEM
Helen
Tracy
mark
marynix
ann-lahrson-fisher
valerie
sandi
david
BOYCOTT Subway!! This is the letter I sent to Subway, Scholastic Inc, AND Quiznos (to let them know I’ll be only going to their stores) Please send this out to EVERY homeschool group you know!!
I see that you are having a competition for elementary children submitting stories to subway.
“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”.
For you that are not aware, homeschooling IS a private school, with the same legal rights as a “regular” private school. What you are doing is downright wrong. I’m sure you’re aware of the folowing:
According to the National Home Education Research Institute…
“There were an estimated 1,700,000 to 2,100,000 children (grades K-12) home educated during 2002-2003 in the United States. Homeschooling appears to still be the fastest-growing form of education.”
This was FIVE years ago, and believe me, it is a MUCH bigger number now. So I’ll just let all homeschool sites know that we are not welcome in subways, as we don’t really count, and we’ll make sure our families and friends know the same thing. Since we’re not good enough for your competition, then you’re not good enough for our business. The internet is an amazing thing, you can get SO much information out so quickly. A copy of this letter to all the big homeschool sites will get the word out to all the people who you choose to ignore in your competition, and that we need not patron your stores. Thank you for your time in reading this letter, I guess Quiznos is THE place to be!
And to Scholastic Inc., sponsors of the competition.
I understand that you are a sponsor of Subway’s story competition. Were you aware that homeschoolers are excluded from this competition? These are people who buy your product CONSTANTLY. I’d like to share with you a letter I sent to Subway, and what I added to it for all the homeschool groups I could find.
(insert letter)
I sent this letter to every site I possibly could. I know that PLENTY of homeschoolers buy your product, and yet we’re not acceptable for this competition. That is WRONG. Please don’t let yourself be associated as not homeschool friendly, because we are a part of your market that uses your products. Thank you for your time and consideration.
“One of the more obvious work-arounds…was for the equipment to be donated to a local park, or to a school of the winner’s choice.”
This was my first thought, too. Imagine the headlines: “Homeschooled child wins new playground for local school.”
TO: SUBWAY®
Doctor’s Associates Inc.
Scholastic Inc.,
RE: EVERY SANDWICH TELLS A STORY CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES
Does Rule 2 [below] mean that Doctor’s Associates Inc. and SUBWAY® and Scholastic Inc. believe that ‘home schooled’ persons are second class citizens? Home schooled students are not welcome to participate in your contest. Should they also consider themselves and their families not welcome at Subway stores?
“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.”
[capitalization emphasis mine]
Contest Sponsors:
Scholastic Inc.
557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
SFAFT, 488 Wheelers Farms Road, Milford, CT 06461
Subway Franchise Headquarters
325 Bic Drive
Milford, CT 06461-3059
PH: 203-877-4281
800-888-4848
Doctor’s Associates Inc.
325 Bic Dr.
Milford, CT 06460 CT
Tel. 203-877-4281
Toll Free 800-888-4848
Fax 203-876-6674
Officers:
President: Frederick A. (Fred) DeLuca
VP Operations: Millie Shinn
Controller: David Worroll
It took a while to get setup for a comment. I picked up your site from the WND story by Mr.
Baggett and am pasting my comment to him. I will also be coming back with some personal history on education that you may or may not know about.
Mr. Baggett:
Just finished reading your report. I do not patronize Subway so I cannot boycott Subway but where does Scholastic come into the picture? Quite a few years back when I sailed Merchant Marine part time with Sabine Towing of Port Arthur, Texas becaused it was non union and I could sail relief when one of their regular firemen or oiler needed a vacation. It worked fine for both of us.
During this time I was on the SS Colorado with a load of fuel from Texas to Bayonne, New Jersey. While discharging I went to the Scholastic Office in the
Empire State building to offer a childrens story I had written and illustrated. Scholastic was not interested and told me I had to restrict my vocabulary to their chosen list of words that could not produce a good story. They have also been a major supplier of text books to the failed school system and those text books contain many problems. This is quite deliberate. So what does Subway have to do with Scholastic. Which one came up with the idea? I would look for Scholastic to be very much involved and it would be consistant with what I know of them.
> Problem solved – good will all around. Too bad that it didn’t play out that way.
It may turn our to be a good thing it turns out this way. Maybe it will throw more light on the problem and we will have the better vision to deal with it. Check out that relationship.
Whit350
I can offer one reason the Home Schoolers should back off a bit – Taxes. Since Subway will be awarding this prize in either monetary form or as physical prizes, there is a value attached to it. Subway can then use this value as a donation to deduct from taxes. In order to do this, Subway most likely needs to award it to a “non-profit” or other agency that is not subject to local, state, or Federal taxes. This would preclude any individual that is not registered as a non-profit organization.
So tell me, how many of you are simply upset because you are not eligible to get $5k into your hands? Would you be raising such a ruckus if you knew you would have to pay taxes on it? Would you actually donate that money to your local school for playground equipment or for their sports team? If so, why? Doesn’t that strike you as a bit hypocritical since you eschew your local school system? I think you need to sit down and take another look at the big picture. Stop feeling as if you’re being discriminated against, since you are the ones who turned your backs on the school system in the first place.
“So tell me, how many of you are simply upset because you are not eligible to get $5k into your hands?”
I suspect very few are distressed for the above reason. I have written a letter and forwarded the issue despite the fact that I am a Canadian and therefore ineligible to enter the contest on that ground alone.
Another work around is to just give the homeschooled winner money instead of prizes.
To Whit350
Whit, this isn’t unheard of, and not only from Scholastic: Children’s Writer’s Word Book
Some publishers restrict the vocabularies in books targeted at specific age/grade levels of children. I don’t know if the theory is that the kids won’t be able to read books with larger vocabularies, of if the intended customer is schools, not children.
I’m just glad that children’s classics weren’t subject to this kind of rule.
So Valerie,
I also thought about the poor blokes living in the Untied States and was going to boycott in a move of solidarity.
Okay, that said. This is an obvious ploy to gain more school business. Afterall, they won’t be awarding schooled kids $5K either – just their schools. Although I’ve read a “unofficial” apology from Scholastic, I found it to be lame. It could have read, “Sorry, my bad. Will try harder next time.” It would have had the same content.
Frankly, they ought to scrap the entire contest. There is no country called Untied States to have citizens, therefore, no one qualifies. They should issue a full retraction of the contest or someone ought to consider a fraud suit.
But really all this goes out bashing Subway (the messenger and possible financier) when the real issue should be with Scholastic who really should know better and should either pull out completely or hold the same contest – this time for homeschoolers only.
And – NO – I don’t think that a local school should auto-receive the prize. My YMCA could use the equipment and schoolers as well as homeschoolers could benefit. Or maybe the homeschool winner could start an athletic league with the resources. We are excluded from the tax funded programs in most of our districts. Schools don’t need more resources they need to learn to use their resources more wisely! Neither are schools Community Centers. They are territorial, resource gluttons who do not share anything even amongst themselves. Is it not true that discrepancies are still rampant despite bussing and other remedial actions?
But I rant.
I guess what I am getting at is this – Aren’t we exhausted from dealing with discrimination politely? The educational period is over for the indoctrinated and/or ignorant bigot. We need to begin a new revolution. One that demands equality at least of our status as citizens of the United States of America. Our right to homeschool was won through a Constitutional argument. We have been Emancipated from slavery. Now it’s time for us to have a Civil Rights Movement to actuate our rights and standing.
Lauri
Savage-Squirrel – you’re a product of a public school system, aren’t you? And if you are worried about people turning their backs on the school system, you should direct your animosity toward private school participants also.
In our area – we have a large, well-organized homeschool group of 500 families and our organization/support group is non profit, if that were truly Subway’s concern. Many churches now run homeschool co-ops for the families in the church who homeschool – so money could easily have gone to a ‘non-profit’.
We have playgroud equipment, science equipment, etc. for homeschool families to use for functions like Track & Field day and for parents to loan for use in their studies. This issue is not about the 5K not being in our pocket. The money would have been well spent in our organization and greatly enriched the lives of those 500 homeschool families if one of our students would enter and win.
This is about the fact that Subway did not take the time to investigate whether there was a way to work with homeschoolers for this contest. I’m sure our group is not the only organized group in the United States and it may have required a little extra effort on their part – but not impossible. As far as boycott – I never eat there, but you can bet I’m not inclined to consider it now.
If the exclusion applied to you – would you think that someone should tell you to back down when you protest???
Mom_to_seven:
I’m proud to say that I am the product of both public and private institutions as well as a good deal of great learning from my family. BTW – I am one of 6 children.
Apart from my previous supposition concerning taxes, my “animosity”, if it even exists, is well directed at the cry-baby home-schooler segment of society. My focus is on those who have decided that their school systems do not offer what they have determined to be adequite teaching and therefore are doing what they feel no one else can do. They have made a choice to “turn their backs” on what is offered them – publically or priavately – but now are complaining because they are not eligible to participate in a contest that is directed at helping to improve public and private schools. Is it really necessary for me to break this down any further?
I truly believe that there are those who do not have any alternative and am quite pleased that they have taken on the challenge of educating their children. I also believe, however, that this is a small subset of those currently being home schooled. I think there are a number of parents who hover over their children, controlling every aspect of their “precious snowflake’s” lives to the point where the child will never develope the proper social skills necessary to make it to adulthood, let alone survive their teen years.
The bottom line is this: take responsibility for your actions and decisions. Don’t get upset when everyone else is having fun in the pool and your child can’t participate because they never learned how to swim.
Savage-Squirrel
One need not be terribly upset about the Subway contests to believe that they made a huge mistake. I’ve hardly lost sleep over this. However, the evidence shows a lack of competence and thoroughness on the part of Subway in this endeavor, and those in charge of setting this up have made fools of themselves. I don’t necessarily support a boycott, but I can understand people being turned off. I do not “demand” anything, but the way corporate Subway put this together shows a complete lack of knowledge in regard to homeschooling. There is a lack of knowledge because they did not have enough respect for that community to check it out more thoroughly.
I believe it is that lack of respect which is the root of the problem. There are ways to accomplish a goal of supporting a brick and mortar school without insulting another group of people, but that requires a bit of knowledge and thought. Diplomacy is an important part of PR.
Your swimming pool analogy is off the mark. It would be more accurate to say that people got upset because everyone else was having fun while their children were excluded because the parents themselves taught the children how to swim. Of course, the exclusion would take place at the end of the invitation to come swim. “Children are invited to come join in the fun, unless taught by their parents.” It’s just a stupid thing to do. Pointing that out does not make one a cry-baby, but merely a critical observer.