Sometimes I wonder...

...if there are those with nothing better to do than look for trouble. That's what I thought of as I read this article about getting rid of Pizza Hut's BookIt program. I participated in this program as a child. I loved it. I came out of school with a love of reading. It gave young children, even reluctant readers, something to strive for. In fact, one of my brothers would not read independently until the program was started at our school and now as an adult is still a reader. It also strengthened our narration skills as we were required to give an oral book report in order to get the coupon. At max we would get one a month.

Yes, childhood obesity is a problem. However, Book It is not the reason. Doing away with the program will not curb obesity in the slightest, as one personal pan pizza a month is not going to make a significant difference in anyone's weight. If it were one pizza a day, that would be different, but it is not. What banning the program would do is take away the incentive to read that some kids benefit from. There are some that do not read even with the program. There are those who will read even without it - I would probably have fallen into this category myself. But there are also those like my brother, who really could use the motivation to jump start the process. Some critics claim that kids will not learn to read for reading itself. But my brother no longer goes out and buys himself a pizza every time he finishes a book. He does still read regularly. He might not have begun without the special incentive that this program provided.