Is Book-It Bad?

[betheliz]

How many of you did Book-It as a child? I did, and I'm sure many of you did too. Simple concept, read some books, collect little stickers for your button and then eventually get a coupon for a free personal pan pizza. Marvelous. Or not?

Critics Denounce Pizza Hut Reading Program

The criticims make sense at first, but let's break it down.

Comments

[je_reviens]

When children read for a prize, it doesn't make them readers.

This irritates me. Reading is a skill, like math or karate. It uses specific brain and physical functions. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Most children who are not readers simply don't have enough practice. This is an incentive to get them to practice. You can never, ever have enough reading practice. And I got lots of incentives to read as a child. Most of them were in the form of verbal approval and praise, but they still existed. Expecting a 7-year old to be self-motivated in reading is the idea of someone who knows absolutely nothing about childhood development.

[psycho_hedgehog]

I remember doing that when I was a kid.. it was fun, and in the end, pizza. I am with you.. rewards are good for kids. And kids love pizza (usually). So there you go. Mix pizza with reading.. and maybe reading becomes a positive too.

I like the alternate reward thing for parents too.. that is a cool idea if a kid didn't like the pizza, or was struggling with a weight problem or something.

I have heard some of the reading level horrors myself. They are scary.

[anonymous]

Yes, I did that program.

Maybe they could change the program so that they could get less pizzas or something?

And yes, I remember scholastic.