The Education Wonks
I also was seduced by pizza...and have come out of it healthy and an avid reader. (Although I don't know if I count, since I am an English teacher now.)
I wonder if the effort put into ridding the education world of the Book-it program would be better served trying to keep physical education classes in schools. I think that would help us to form healthier students.
Oh, if only we could do away with all of the evil in the world: Pizza Hut, WalMart...
Oh, please. One or even ten personal pan pizzas does not an obese child make. Are we trying to suck ALL of the fun out of being a kid? And anything Alfie Kohn's against, well sign me up for it.
Ed, you just fell for the bourgois "bread and circuses". The Man will always try to keep you down; if he's really adept, you won't even know you're down. Power to the people, and all that!
It's hard to believe that someone could actually find fault with this program. As Mike pointed out, watch the education establishment scream if Wal*Mart were to offer similar inducements...
So they give out a pizza. Most kids don't earn them, and the ones who do rarely take them in!
What about the free pizza for the teacher, who is looking out for their welfare!
Talk about a cruel, unhealthy world...we are exposed to this hipp tree-hugger nonsense constantly!
(sniff!) I... I.... (deep breath)
I, too, am...
...a Pizza Hut addict! And I am addicted to reading, as well. Too bad I can't blame this program for both of these compulsions, but alack and alas, this program arrived long after my hair was no longer in pigtails.
But tell that to my waistline.
Just wait until Lenscrafters gets in on this whole 'literacy' racket. Can I pre-register for the class-action suit?
I've never been much of a Pizza Hut fan, but I wish there were one here after reading this, just so I could patronize them. The only national chains we have are Papa John's and Domino's. Most of the pizza chains here are NJ/NY chains.
Book It started in my school district when I was in fourth or fifth grade. I collected many coupons that I never used because our local Pizza Hut was very nasty.
What bothers me about this article and most of the anti-junk food crusades is the fact that there is nothing about teaching children the importance of moderation. What is wrong with the occasional pizza? This is just another example of our culture taking things to extremes and forgoing the sanity of the middle ground.
Pizza Hut giving away free pizzas to students has no more effect on childhood obesity than does have a soda machine in the school!!
Here is a childhood obesity test for you to try.
I am a low income parent with three children and I have $5.00 to spend for my evening meal. (Don't attempt to judge or rationalize with your middle income values why I have so little, you won't get it.)
I can purchase something very healthy for my kids, but have so little of it they will be hungry for the evening, or I can get six boxes of mac and cheese on sale and they will be full!! What do you think.
Schools are responsible for a great many things in this country, both good and not so good. WAKE UP AMERICA- Schools are not respobsible for the childhood obesity problem. Neither is the Book It program.
Talk about overreaction...
I personally didn't care for the Book It program when my kids were that age. Somehow those "free" personal pizzas ended up costing more than we usually spent on a family dinner out. But I certainly didn't feel "ostracized" when we stopped participating in the program.
Maybe it's because my students are high-schoolers, but I've had very little luck with incentives. Pizza parties, doughnuts, chocolate... seems like they've heard it all before. Our principal used to encourage us to provide these incentives to the low-achieving classes that had state mandated tests attached, but I didn't see much improvement when I tried to motivate my remedial English classes with pizza.
Ya know, if we wanted to give kids a $5 token of "Yay you did a good job reading!" we could probably start with a $5 gift certificate to [name your favorite bookstore] and nobody would complain. But here you all are standing up for an incentive program that offers a food that is laden with *both* fat and starch. Yes it's a "sometimes food" as Cookie Monster has been forced to point out lately. Frankly, I'd rather they gave out coupons for a bakery cookie from the local grocery store!
Furthermore, this program inadvertantly punishes kids for being vegan, or having food allergies. "Here's your free pizza... oh wait I guess you can't eat that sorry!" It's not even like a normal restaurant where there are other things a kid can eat. The coupon is for a pizza. Period, the end. If you don't like pizza, you get bupkis.
If incentives are so freaking wonderful, then let the school design their own incentive program. They can involve local busineses as they see fit. I've already suggested getting bookstores or grocery stores involved. If you think food is that big a motivator, get a local restaurant into the action. We don't need Pizza Hut.
JKN -- They are taking soda machines too...and while I am a huge mac n' cheese fan, it is only a matter of time until they come for that fat laden slop of joy too 
bmangus -- Do you have temper issues? You seem to be for the use of incentives, what do you care what it is? All reading and no running promotes obesity. Which do you see fatter readers, writers, and thimkers or pizza eating kids who get out and have fun? I agree that pizza isn't the best, and if you can bring other community organizations on board, I'll back your program too! Unfortunately, that doesn't happen often very does it?
"Furthermore, this program inadvertantly punishes kids for being vegan"
This is a joke, right?
There are no vegan kids -- just kids who are being abused by having that "diet" forced on them by their parents.
I'm late to this discussion, but I must say this--anyone who thinks Pizza Hut sells pizza has never had a pizza.
And that's all I have to say about that.
1. My kids read every night no matter what.
2. Every month my kindergartner is rewarded with a coupon for reading every night. The second grader doesn't. We still read every night no matter what.
3. We occasionally eat pizza for lunch on the weekends. I have no problem getting one free at a restuarant where half the family enjoys eating.
4. We have three coupons we haven't used yet, so my kids won't be dying of obesity over this.
5. My kindergartner is recognizing and reading words now. Did pizza contribute? No. Reading with him did. I dunno...could be our attitude about reading and not pizza that's doing the trick.
6.If a big corporation wants to carry on an incentive program for 10 years, let them. If it appears to be a ploy to bring money into their business, then do what you need to do.
This is such garbage. This program has been around since I was in fifth grade and I loved it then and I use it in my classroom now. The kids don't necessarily read "for" the pizza, but it's nice to be able to give the kids who did what they were supposed to do a small token of sorts. Is one personal pan pizza a month going to cause a child to be obese? Not unless the parents are feeding them garbage for every other meal as well. Childhood obesity is a parenting problem, not a Pizza Hut Book-It problem, or even a school issue. If you don't want your child to be obese, then don't let them play video games and watch TV every waking hour and make their lunches. I agree with the person above that low income families have a tougher road when healthy food is more expensive, but you can never go wrong with a peanut butter sandwich and a banana. Cheap, healthy, solid. A little skim milk, and you've got yourself a meal. Rant over.
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