The Pizza Locust

From CNN:

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.

I cry “bullshit” on this one.

Giving a child an incentive to read a book does not inevitably lead to a child who will only read for reward, nor is “junk food” alone the cause of childhood obesity.

While both of those things can certainly contribute, the ultimate factor is environment, and our own natural tendency to be lazy.

It is, obviously, corporate self-promotion. Climb out of your ivory tower and welcome to the real world.

link from cnn.com

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