"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."
Contest details at: http://www.subwayfr
To comment: http://subway.
It almost makes me wish we patronized Subway so that I could boycott it. I wonder about the reason behind this rule. Have homeschoolers offended Subway in some way? Is it assumed that any homeschooled student entering the contest will have their parents do the writing? Did Scholastic insist on including this rule? After all, they have a large stake in public education. Is Subway providing food to public schools and catering to the whim of the Board of Education? So many questions...
Here is a copy of the comment I sent:
I was disappointed to hear that your student story contest specifically excludes homeschooled children from participation. It is a rather unenlightened and discriminatory decision. I would be interested in understanding the reason behind your choice for the benefit of my homeschooling peers.Update: My good friend Vicki has sent a link to an article from the American Thinker. Subway Bans Homeschooled Kids from Essay Contest. Enjoy!
Thank you in advance for any clarification you can provide.
11 comments:
This really ticked me off. My kids love Subway, and it's a relatively healthy choice for fast food. We will be boycotting them. I sent Subway an email yesterday, and we entered a story in their contest as a "home school."
I wonder if we will hear anything back.
Thanks for posting this. It irked me to no end and I did comment to them. I told then a few other things, but mentioned that when they exclude homeschoolers, they exclude a customer base that is home the majority of the time to support their business. We do like subway for some of their healthier fast food choices and it is disheartening to hear that when so many homeschoolers would be more willing to actually enter a writing competition.
I like your post. I'm thinking about posting some of the comments made on the unschoolers pages.
We have been supporting Subway for years all over this country as we travel, even in Canada! But all good things have to come to an end.
Sorry, Subway. Wish you had better writers in your PR & Ad departments. Maybe you could have phrased and/or designed the rules less offensively.
Okay -- while I do wish that they're tiny bit of writing had more clarification -- It doesn't make me mad.
If you look at the grand prize -- it's $5,000 for sports equipment.
I don't want to open a gymnastics studio - I realize you might. But really - the entire contest is geared for a public school - and a hurting one at that.
It really doesn't bother me. I don't know where I'd put that much stuff - and I only eat there so often. I'm rather pleased that they're trying to help a system that is hurting (and failing, I realize) but that's just me.
Hope their answer helps.
I wish I could go back and edit that post...without deleting all of it.
They had such a limited space to write out the fine print - is what I was thinking at first.
True, Comfy, I had noticed that prize. But that would have been easy to work around. I would have been perfectly willing to donate equipment to my local district. I've always considered that when entering other contests. I just think they could have worded their exclusion better. (ex.- This contest is being run in an effort to improve local schools, therefore we regret that home school entries will not be accepted.)
National Amusements has run a summer reading program that gives prizes as well. They have a grand prize of free movie tickets for your whole class. The year Marina won I told them I had no idea what I would do with movie tickets for a whole class, but they said I could share them with our local homeschooling group.
I am utterly discusted by this! Who do they think they are? It makes me extremely angry. I normally eat there! Not anymore.
Actually it doesn't bother me at all. One of the reasons we homeschool is because we want our children to have to opportunity to develop their skills and follow their passions in the absence of external motivators. My kids have participated in contests, but usually because it gave them the chance to do something else that they liked. For example, one daughter has played in fiddle contests because she gets to perform on stage for an appreciative audience.
Deborah
As per worldnet daily, the actual contest rules included such wonderful examples of spelling as "Untied" states and a gift "bastket". Hmmmmm. Yeah, I think subway had better hire a few homeschoolers to work in their editing department....
We wouldn't have entered the competition anyway, since my son breaks out in hives at the very thought of "writing" and "competition" =Þ however, it was a pretty short-sighted decision on Subway's part to exclude homeschoolers. Way to annoy millions of people in one fell swoop...
I've heard Quiznos makes AWESOME subs... =)
http://www.american thinker.com/ 2008/05/subway_ bans_homeschoole d_kids.html
=)
Keely: There's something you want to see in a writing contest: typos in the rules. They have since fixed their errors. I guess spell-check wouldn't have caught Untied (although I did find that incredibly funny.)
B&B: Thanks for the link! I updated the post to include it.
Deborah: I'm really not bothered by this either. My kids give me dirty looks if I try to involve them in writing contests. ;o) I simply feel we need to take each moment as an opportunity to educate. In this case, I feel Subway needed to be educated about the homeschooling option. I'll homeschool anybody! :oD
Post a Comment