Tammy Bruce: Ebay Bans Homeschool Textbooks

Ebay Bans Homeschool Textbooks

They're considered 'illegal, dangerous, offensive, or potentially infringing.' Indeed, you pesky parents who think you have a right to be your child's teacher. This'll show ya!

eBay prohibits textbooks for homeschool teachers

...The policy, which is inclusive of all teachers' texts, was made known recently as those who were auctioning various books watched as their postings were deleted...Another homeschooler on the blog said she questioned eBay when her listings were cancelled.

"They told me that it fell under their heading of 'illegal, dangerous, offensive, or potentially infringing,'" she said. "What are they thinking? I have a mess of curriculum here that I can't sell, and needing money from it to buy curriculum for the new school year."

This, mind you, is the same site that has no problem selling Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler related material. But you can't have that freakish homeschooling stuff. Nah, that's from the devil!

Posted by Tammy · August 27, 2006 12:25 PM · Permalink
Children | Internet/Communication | The New American Revolution

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» WTF? from it comes in pints?
Jeebus. I may need to make a new category for crap like this. (Via Zendo Deb). eBay seems to have decided that homeschoolers are more offensive than Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler.... [Read More]

Tracked on August 28, 2006 06:53 AM

Comments

Perhaps a compromise could be worked out by placing the homeschool materials in the "Mature" section of eBay, alongside the vibrating lifesize inflatable sheep dolls and magazines about amputee transsexuals. Who could object to that?

Posted by: Talkin Horse at August 27, 2006 01:36 PM

But seriously, I get the sense that the homeschool movement is larger that most people realize. The media doesn't tell us about this particular subculture, but there are a lot of people who pull their kids out of rotten public schools and then opt for homeschooling because they can't afford private tuitions. So there are plenty of resources and support groups to help individuals teach the required curriculum. This is "controversial" because it reduces the power of the teachers' unions and also reduces the control of the state over your children.

Posted by: Talkin Horse at August 27, 2006 02:16 PM

I seriously doubt eBay is in cahoots with teacher's unions and individual state departments of education.

When I read their policy, honestly I can see the reasoning behind it. And regardless, they are entitled to their policies. I do think there should be places for parents to buy grade-level curricula to home shcool their children. And, well, there are. So I personally don't see the need for a stink.

Though if people feel very strongly about it, they can fill out the supplied 'policy grievance' form, write letters, and even be moved to a personal boycott.

If I may, one thing I will say is - I feel that children who are homeschooled miss out on a significant social facet of growing up. I can definitely understand parents wanting to protect their children from the world, but I would recommend being more active when it comes to maintaing traditional morals and values in our society as opposed to oversheltering your kids. If it's the education factor, surely you know there are many highly intelegent people who are products of the public education system.

Posted by: Mr. G at August 27, 2006 03:12 PM

Mr. G., I acknowledge that there are some places where public schools are decent. It depends upon the jurisdiction and the community. Here in California, the kooks have been especially aggressive in destroying what was once the pride of the nation. For example, they replaced the old functional program of phonics with the new, experimental (and, as it turned out, worthless) program of "whole language". They also replaced English immersion for immigrants with the non-functional bilingual programs. They came up with other non-working but cool-sounding programs, such as (if I recall correctly) "outcome-oriented learning". They eliminated traditional discipline. The California legislature is legendary for demanding the schoolbooks be politically correct; their latest effort is to require textbooks emphasize the historical contributions of transgendered persons (I am not making this up). So one can make a pretty fair case that, at least in certain districts, public schools do not expose you to "the world", except maybe in a Twilight Zone nightmarish sort of way. Yes, good parenting is essential, with or without public schools. But many parents perceive the modern school system to be aggressively hostile to their values and interests, and I think this perception is not unfair.

You're right that eBay is free to do whatever they want. But nobody has suggested otherwise. It's fair of us to keep an eye on them just as we keep an eye on everyone we do business with.

Posted by: Talkin Horse at August 27, 2006 05:18 PM

Links on my blog include the Parents Television Council, the Liberty Counsel, Focus on the Family, and Reclaim America - and I am a fan of Tammy's book 'The Death of Right and Wrong", so I do think we're on the same page when it comes to the deterioration of traditional values and morality in our society and in our schools. I hope people become more active in preventing that. I'm know I am trying (my blog was the first step ;)

Posted by: Mr. G at August 27, 2006 06:09 PM

Could it be that the sale of 'teacher texts' was banned because the texts have the answers to lesson plans in them? Cheating students may purchase them for the answers...

Posted by: helpunderdog at August 28, 2006 07:27 AM

I think the post inaccurately implies that the ban is specifically targeted toward homeschoolers. Actually, it states that it applies to all teacher's textbooks. In that light, it seems to be a reasonable policy. Perhaps ebay could have done a better job of explaining why it fell under a category listing that included dangerous, offensive, and infringing. I agree with Tammy 99% of the time, but I respectfully think this is one instance of hyping up a story and twisting the details to create a controversy that doesn't really exist.

[One might ask, who is buying teacher textbooks off the internet if not homeschoolers? Teachers in public schools get theirs at the school, hence this is a ban that affects homeschooling parents, plain and simple--ed.]

As far as the whole homeschool vs. public school debate. This will never be an issue where one side is declared the winner and the other side a loser. Both systems of education have their positives and negatives. A lot depends on the personality of the particular child and the quality of the teacher involved. There are ill-suited and under-qualified teachers both in the public schools and in homes.

Posted by: Melissa at August 28, 2006 11:06 AM

Hmm. Perhaps they could sell them in ebay's Mature Audiences section? That would seem to preclude kids buying them for the answers.

Posted by: Kathy K at August 28, 2006 04:35 PM

I don't homeschool, but I do supplement what is taught in their public school. I use albris.com and I spend more on shippng than the books. It's been an alternative for me to half.com and ebay.

Posted by: debi912 at August 30, 2006 09:40 AM

I agree with the posting by Mr. G. It is necessary to make sure that "teacher texts" are not made available to students. In my attempts to teach English to immigrants, I came across great difficulty in obtaining these texts, for good reason. If a student attempting to get easy A's were able to get these textbooks online, it would be very difficult for colleges to allow home-schooled students into their programs for obvious reasons.
Parents interested in selling their parent copies should look into finding (or founding) a site for the selling of teacher texts.

Posted by: KitRuzicka at August 30, 2006 02:38 PM

I do homeschool, there is a difference between the teachers editions of schoolbooks and the curriculum that many homschoolers choose to use (I don't happen to use it) these curriculums are complete lesson plans for parents to use, not the teachers editions that schools use. Parents may also use these books, but from the information listed above that (the teachers editions) is not what this particular lister was trying to sell.

Posted by: Jennifer at August 31, 2006 10:23 AM

Sounds like Adolf Hitler in his book burning phase. Anything he didn't want the public to know or have was burned.

Posted by: Craig C at September 1, 2006 03:14 PM

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