Sunday, May 25, 2008

Just Stop it With the Subway Hate

So Subway doesn't want homeschoolers entering it's contest. Turns out that doesn't sit well with a lot of homeschoolers. Me? I don't care. Why?

I choose to homeschool my kids. I knew that meant they weren't going to school. I knew that meant some stuff meant for schools wouldn't be meant for them. They don't get to ride schoolbuses, they don't get to have lunch at the local elementary school and they don't get to enter contests meant specifically for school kids.

What really gets under my skin about the reaction to the Subway contest are the extreme reactions. Boycott Subway! Subway Hates Homeschoolers!There's very little measured response or thoughtful commentary. What about an imaginative action that might enlighten Subway? Why not write in and politely tell them about community groups and co-ops that homeschoolers are involved in and that could use the athletic equipment and suggest a more inclusive contest next time? Why on earth start throwing stones and hissy fits?

It's a contest. It's a contest for school kids. We don't have school kids. Let it go.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh, I've been trying to comment, and each time it's giving me a different error message. So... one more time... I am right there with ya. The extreme reaction of some to this non-issue is not understandable to me, and might potentially hurt our cause (homeschooling).

Jacqueline said...

Interesting perspective, and one I agree with for the most part. I still think that it would be nice if the contest were set up so that homeschooled kids could participate, too, but I agree with you that we need to help educate them about how this can happen because right now it is a totally foreign concept to them. I also agree that extreme reactions are not going to help any.

Anonymous said...

I liked the comment left over at Doc's about how Subway must also hate non-US citizens who are also "excluded." It got me wondering: How are Canadians dealing with this outrage?

Anonymous said...

I thought the Subway Incident made a great lesson for our homeschool- "Life is not fair- get over it."

I agree that if you want to protest something, the best thing to do is to write to the company with beneficial suggestions and reasonable solutions. But personally I really don't care- if somebody wants to have a contest that only includes a certain group of people, then that is their business. EVERYONE can't do EVERYTHING. Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Lynn... you're cracking me up. That is sooo true! LOL

molytail said...

I was wondering why people were so upset - I mean yeah, it sucks that they excluded them like that (and what happens to the ones that ARE technically registered as a private school?) but contests do that all the time... they'll be open only to ages __ to __, or residents of blah and blah, or over the age of __, or only whatever.... every contest pretty much has some sort of restrictions on participants.... as someone who used to spend a lot of time entering contests, I know how many "only US residents" contests are out there by companies that sell their stuff in Canada too, grumble. :-P

Anonymous said...

I would wholly understand sending off a letter and see what happens. I don't really see boycotting, but I really don't understand the level of animosity some have shown. It took me completely off guard being about some company wanting to give a school athletic equipment.