Pizza Hut's Book It program has been around since 1985 and has motivated a lot of kids to get into reading. With all of the concern about childhood obesity, some people feel that it is time to not Book It.
You've read the book, now eat the pizza.
Since 1985, that's been the gist of Pizza Hut's Book It, an incentive program used by 50,000 schools nationwide to reward young readers with free pizzas. The program is now under attack by child-development experts who say it promotes bad eating habits and turns teachers into corporate promoters.
Book It, which reaches about 22 million children a year, "epitomizes everything that's wrong with corporate-sponsored programs in school," said Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist and co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
"In the name of education, it promotes junk food consumption to a captive audience ... and undermines parents by positioning family visits to Pizza Hut as an integral component of raising literate children," Linn said.
This week, Linn's organization called on parents to end their schools' participation in the long-standing program.
The Book It program has its share of supporters. According to the Dallas based company, it is the nation's largest reading motivation program. Some educators feel that the program is beneficial and motivates a lot of students to want to read more books.
At Strafford Elementary School in Strafford, Missouri, the roughly 500 students collectively read 30,000 books a year with Book It's help, said principal Lucille Cogdill.
"I don't have any negative things at all to say about it," Cogdill said. "I know there's concern about obesity, but Book It is not causing it, and the schools aren't causing it."
I read recently where most diet gurus call for a day to just be bad. It's hard to eat a healthy diet 24/7. I have to admit that I used M&Ms as incentives for my own kids when potty training. (Hopefully, this doesn't embarrass them.) Personally, I think that the parents are the ones that need to monitor their kids' diets and help them find a healthy balance when eating. One of my friends had a boy that would only eat hot dogs. She couldn't get him to eat anything else. Frustrated by this, she took him to the pediatrician and begged for help. He advised her to give the child hot dogs. None of use could believe it. I wonder if Oscar Mayer has a reading program.