Saturday, March 3, 2007

Misdirected Fanaticism

This here is absolutely killing me. There was a story in today's local paper with the headline "Critics tear into Pizza Hut's Book It". For crying out loud. My son is in kindergarten, and once a month he brings home a list with six blank lines, and if he reads six books, fills in the six lines, and returns the form to his teacher, she gives him a coupon for one personal pan pizza.

Have you ever seen a personal pan pizza? It's about the size of an english muffin.

So far, since this first started in October, TB has finished his quota every month. He actively seeks out books that he can read aloud to us, and he is rightly proud when he finishes his list. He has earned five coupons, which expire a month after you get them, and we have used only one - mainly because the pizza is dreadful, but also he is barely caring about the pizza. TB is more excited about the accomplishment. So you know what? I don't care if the incentive is a heart-clogging Big Mac. Pizza Hut had a good idea. Sure, it draws people to their product, but it's helping excite kids about reading.

It's our job to monitor our child's diet, not Pizza Hut's, and certainly not the Citizens for a Commercial-Free Childhood. I'm sure they mean well, but they can just back off.

Sometimes it helps to dangle a carrot to get the process moving. In this case, TB's motivation is all about pride. I think he deserves a 4 inch pizza for that.

1 comment:

Roanoke RnR said...

My kids participated in that same program years ago. Oh the horror...they were reading! The lousy pizza meant nothing but every once in a while if they really wanted it, we would get it. They're not obese.