09/01/06 Update: World Net Daily has interviewed our own Nancy Carter and Gena Suarez for an article about alternatives to eBay for homeschoolers. I would also like to note that the article quotes the NEA as saying they had nothing to do with this, because they have no formal relationship with eBay. Granted. But this was pressure by the institutionalized school lobby, bureaucracy, and related interested parties, of which the NEA is definitely a big part.
Original post on August 28, 2006: By now you have probably heard that eBay is prohibiting the sale of teacher’s editions of textbooks. It is taking this move because of pressure from the institutionalized schooling lobby. It hurts homeschoolers, who have been buying and selling curriculum on eBay for years.
eBay now deletes teacher edition textbook listings, just as it does illegal drugs, pirated music or movies, and firearms or other weapons. That is because knowledge in the hands of anyone other than the anointed priest class, i.e., the public school bureaucracy, is dangerous! Wow, we have regressed to the days of ancient Egypt or the Druids.
I guess if the NEA cannot get homeschooling outlawed through legislation, they will harass homeschoolers in any other way that they can.
Had to chuckle.
From my experience, the teacher manuals are conveniences for home educating families. If we’ve got them, great. If not, we can either figure out the answer ourselves, research it, or pull together with a fellow home educator who knows the subject matter.
But the government school ‘teachers’ that have bought into all the spoon feeding? Could you imagine them surviving without the tms?
Now that’s a funny thought!
Mrs. L
Who takes advantage of tms, but is not dependent on them.
I was wondering what terrible thing would have happened, if eBay just would have said “No! We are not going to start regulating the auction free market, and we are not going to class a textbook in the same category as a dangerous or illegal substance, of all things!” If the public school bureaucracy was threatening legal action, are eBay’s lawyers so incompetent that they could not make the case that knowledge and books are neither dangerous, or illegal???
I’ve successfully purchased numerous Teacher’s edition texts on Amazon.com and lower than Ebay prices….much lower!! And no bidding or waiting to see if you won! Much more convenient and quick in my book! Jill
What a great idea! The same teacher’s editions could be searched in bookfinder.com or addall.com, I am sure! Love Christine