I laughed when I read the news article on this. What *I* remember of the Pizza Hut reading program was that you had to read and review so many books in a month, and at the end of that month you would get a free SMALL personal pan pizza (this thing was probably 6 inches in diameter, four small slices in other words).Now, if my parents were having us eat fast food the REST of the month, then I would think that the pizza might not be such a great thing to add on to my "diet" (if you will). But we ate a well-rounded meal AT HOME, TOGETHER, every night. So the pizza was a well-deserved TREAT that emphasized doing what I already loved to do (read). I LOVED to read.....and I STILL love to read...but as a child, between reading and eating and playing games (we even had one of those early Apple computers! hehe), we STILL had to go outside and amuse ourselves as well. And I lived in a town (5,000 people), but we still rode our bikes, rollerbladed/skated, climbed trees, and PRETENDED. So for us (my 3 siblings and I), the Book It! program was actually pretty good. It convinced my 2 younger brothers to read more, and rewarded my younger sister and I for what we were already doing. My parents made sure that we were doing what we could to maintain good reading skills by making us use books that were challenging as well. (Think of me, as a 3rd grader, getting points for summarizing John Grisham's The Client)I think that this just is another item in the overwhelming idea that parents shouldn't have to be responsible for what their children are doing. They don't want to be responsible for what their kids eat, so they blame a reading program. They don't want to say "no" and be responsible for what their kids read, so they sue the school for having Harry Potter on its bookshelves. They want someone other than themselves to blame for the obesity in kids without having well-rounded meals and making their kids go outside and play or exercise and dance with them.
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