HS Comments on the Fly

Shirley Upton’s column online at The Times and Democrat states:

Most people love babies and children, but lately it appears that we have created a child-obsessed and child worshipping society.

But help me out. Is this woman contradicting herself?

For my part, if I never again hear about Brad and Angelina, Britney Spears, Brooke Shields and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and their babies, it would please me no end. These “idols” are poor excuses for parents, and employ loads of hired help to do diaper changes and clean up spit-ups. Where are the little darlings when their parents are out in evening clothes posing for the camera? At home with their nannies, naturally.

When most of us were coming up, child rearing was quite simple for our parents…. Every child went to his or her neighborhood public school, period. No one I know was home schooled because parents couldn’t wait to be child-free, at least for a few hours a day, and they freely admitted it. When the last of my three children entered school, a group of mothers went out to breakfast to celebrate our freedom. It was so adult to sit and eat without the little ones….

On one hand, parents are “poor excuses for parents” because they use hired help so they can go out sans kids. But on the other, wanting to be child-free for a few hours every day is A-OK. What? This is contradictory, right? Or at least close to it, right?

Read the complete article for yourself. She doesn’t make her point very clearly — at least not for folks like me — but I think she’s actually saying that homeschooling parents are obsessive child worshipers because many of us actually enjoy the company of our children and are delighted to spend time with them watching them learn.

Oh, the humanity! (Seinfeld reference)

Two generous and thoughtful Penn State alumnists have pledged $100,000 to a scholarship that will be awarded to eligible students, with homeschooled students receiving first shot at it.

The George R. and Ann E. Kemp Scholarship in the College of Agricultural Sciences will support academically promising undergraduates, with first preference given to students College-wide who were home-schooled. If none are eligible, preference will be given to students in the School of Forest Resources….

“Families who home-school are often at a financial disadvantage,” George Kemp said, “for they sacrifice one parent’s income in order to accomplish their desired educational goals for their children.”

Robert D. Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, said, “We are excited about the Kemps foresight in creating this scholarship. This is the first scholarship at Penn State focused on this particular group, and we are hopeful that it will help us increase the enrollment of home-schooled students in our College.”

Isn’t this great news?! You can read more about George and Ann Kemp, their backgrounds, and the scholarship online at the Penn State Live site.

In case you know a homeschooled student who may be interested, here’s the link to the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences.

I just found another case of trouble at the Barnes & Noble checkout counter. You know, where Barnes & Noble makes it difficult for homeschoolers to get the 20% discount that they originally wanted to give us.

This homeschooler provides the book list showing what they bought for their homeschool. You must page down a little because their page formatting is a bit askew.

Reference: my previous post

I just had a crazy thing happen just now. I opened up one of my bookmark folders full of tabs that I skim now and then in a free minute. I thought I was reading my own words because the event being narrated was so … déjà vu.

Here’s what I wrote back on May 1, 2006 on another page.

Review of Barnes and Noble’s Educator’s Discount
Do you know what I just realized?

I just realized the Barnes and Noble’s Teacher Discount has ultimately made me not shop there anymore. Or at least not too often.

Years ago, a friend and I went and spent the evening there paging through homeschooling books and curricula, chatting and having fun in the comfy chairs. An employee walked up and offered us Educator Discount Cards. We didn’t need to prove that we were homeschoolers; Barnes & Noble just gave us the cards no questions asked.

The no-questions-asked policy continued for a few years … I suppose because I just turned in the card and got another each fall.

However, the past few years they’ve gotten all … “Prove you’re a homeschooler.” “Show us the ‘Homeschooling Association’ card.”

Well, some years I join the local homeschooling group and some years I don’t. If I don’t have the card, that doesn’t mean that I’m not a homeschooler. We aren’t required to join the association by the state.

So Barnes & Noble told me to bring in my approval form from the school district. However, the school district doesn’t send anything out to homeschoolers issuing approval. We don’t need their approval to homeschool in this state. We send in notification, but we don’t receive anything in return.

So proving to Barnes & Noble that we homeschool just to get the 20% discount card has become difficult.

And for me, it’s embarrassing. I tell them that I’m a homeschooler and that we plan to use these books in our homeschooling efforts. They look at me and say [basically] “We don’t believe you. Prove it. We here at Barnes & Noble don’t trust you to be telling us the truth.” Okay, sure, I know people lie. I know that so many people lie that B&N needs proof that customers homeschool or everyone would come in and claim the 20% discount.

However, it’s embarrassing to me to basically have to beg for that 20% discount that they initially offered to me years ago without any proof.

Last year they gave me a big ol’ run around. I had to speak with the manager, who knows me by looking at me, btw. Yet, I still had to describe the class that the book was going to be used for before they would give me the discount. Frankly, as inarticulate as I am, describing an English literature course to a bookstore manager is more work than I want to do for a 60 cent discount. I get so tongue tied that I come off as a total incompetent.

The year before they told me that I’d have to bring in all my home education books to show that I homeschooled. So I hauled them to the store … three boxes of them … until I realized that three boxes of books doesn’t prove I’m a homeschooler. I didn’t take the books in. It would be embarrassing; who wants to be a part of a public spectacle? Besides, anyone can have three boxes of teacher’s editions and curriculum books. That doesn’t prove they’re homeschoolers. I ended up talking to the manager that year also (because the cashier can’t make decisions about replacing old Educator Discount cards).

So when I went last week to buy some Shakespeare books, having them in hand and thinking, “I have to go up there and duke it out with them for the Educator’s Discount” … well, I just turned around and put those books back on the shelves and left. It’s so much easier to just buy them from Amazon where I usually get a pretty hefty discount anyway. And with Amazon’s free shipping on orders over $25, well … why not shop at Amazon instead of my local B&N?

I’d love to buy locally and support my local Barnes & Noble (the local economy), but it’s not worth the embarrassment and trouble and stress. And it’s extremely embarrassing to me, especially with all the other customers looking on.

You might wonder why I don’t just buy the books at Barnes & Noble and just not take the 20% discount. Well, it’s sort of a matter of principle. If they don’t want to give me the benefit of the doubt when I take up Folger’s Shakespeare books, then why do I really want to give them my business? I don’t really.

I probably should have gone over to Border’s. They gave me a 20% Educator’s Discount with little trouble a few years back. However, they don’t have the comfy chairs that I love, so I rarely shop there.

Anyway, I just realized that I don’t shop at Barnes & Noble so much anymore. I used to buy all sorts of homeschooling books there, but slowly, over the years, they’ve chased me away with their policy. So, I’m a little surprised, a little sad.

So when I read Anna’s comments over at Open Path Learners, I was amazed at the similarities. It was like an instant replay. Anna, however, is willing to overlook B&N’s system.

It was Sense and Sensibility that I and my daughter were trying to buy when they wanted me to describe the whole English Lit course and describe how we would use the book “in the classroom.” Usually someone buying a Jane Austen novel is doing it for some type of “school.” You and I know Jane Austen lit is fun and entertaining (at times), but B&N workers know that customers buying a Jane Austen book are likely doing so for a school project of some sort–especially if the homeschoolers are there in the middle of the day. Give me a break!

UPDATE: Another B&N experience.