Mocha Express
Commentaries
Thought provoking commentary on
Business, Technology, Organizations, and Organizational Dynamics
to clarify my thinking and engage in intelligent conversation.
Library: Commentary  Book: Elucidate

2.15 Those Who Can - "Do"; Those Who Can't - "Criticize"
             or
Joisting with Self-Glorifying Windmills
Rather Than Solving Real Problems

March 03, 2007


On the CNN Web site, this morning March 3, 2007, was the headline
                  Critics denounce Pizza Hut reading program
about how some people thought that rewarding kids for "reading" with pizzas was a bad thing.

The Pizza Hut "Book It" gives free pizzas to about 22 million kids who have read books. As the article notes:

"Participating teachers set a monthly reading goal for each student; those who meet the goal get a certificate they can redeem at Pizza Hut for a free Personal Pan Pizza. Families often accompany the winners, turning the event into a celebration that can boost business for the restaurant."

Now, my guess is that we have a pretty good consensus that education, in general, and reading, in particular, are "problems" that need to be addressed. The world of kids growing up is very complex with a multitude of social and physical "distractions" that make learning in school less effective than it needs to be.

So, rather than address the very, very, very hard problem of educating kids, the people at:

commercialexploitation.org
"We support the rights of children to grow up – and the rights of parents to raise them – without being undermined by rampant consumerism."

seem to feel that it is OK to whine about "oh, my, they are being rewarded with pizzas".

Since they seem to academics out of Harvard University, I would have expected a considered study of the "effectiveness" of the program and then advocating one way or the other. This should also come with a comparison to other programs that might be more (or less) effective.

But, no, they seem to be doing commercial exploitation of children for the PR benefit of their organization by simply criticizing the program with no suggestions for alternative. I wouldn't be surprised that these are the same people who criticize "Harry Potter" for promoting "magic".

It is great that these people want to be active in solving problems, but it seems as if they are joisting with a windmill while the kids wander off into drugs and alcohol.


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in Elucidate Book

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Elucidate
      Chapters

1   Clever, but not very Smart
  January 01, 1997
1.1   Mayberry Rules
    February 20, 2012
2   Random Elucidatons
  January 01, 1997
2.1   Stifle Free Speech
    November 16, 2012
2.2   Rewarding Accomplishing Goals
    February 17, 2013
2.3   Banana Slugs:The Law of Unintended Consequences:Protect and Lose
    August 02, 2009
2.4   Computer ate my Sbx Reward
    February 03, 2013
2.5   The End Of Innovation or How To Lie With Statistics?
    July 02, 2005
2.6   Lying With Statistics:CNN Article that Organic Food is Not "more nutritious'
    August 22, 2008
2.7   Everything Old is New Again
    June 28, 2011
2.8   Topical:just like Sub-Prime => Commodity Greed
    April 19, 2008
2.9   Tools:Spreading Knowledge That Can Hurt:
    April 14, 2008
2.10   Tools:Trying to Help While Still Selling Corn
    February 27, 2008
2.11   The Game is Rigged:Attacking with Speculative Analysis
    January 06, 2008
2.12   Getting your "Eyes On" to see ATV Damage
    November 26, 2007
2.13   US Forest Service - "Leave No Trace... or you will do Trail Maintenance with a Trowel!"
    October 13, 2007
2.14   Act Locally, Destroy Globally:Cultivate Disease Resistance
    March 04, 2007
2.15   Joisting with Self-Glorifying Windmills
    March 03, 2007
3   Analysis
  January 01, 1997
3.1   Analysis of Medical Insurance Discussion
    April 06, 2013
3.2    Degrees of Risk
    April 24, 2013
3.3   Qualifying Experts
    January 25, 2014
4   Finches:Urban Ones Smart??
  March 23, 2016
5   BBC - Propaganda
  June 10, 2016
6   BBC Propaganda, again
  June 15, 2016
7    Why did Agriculture Start 13,000 years ago
  June 23, 2016
8   Ice Core TimeLine Munge
  September 22, 2016
9   Ice Age Survival
  December 29, 2016
Carpe Diem: What you can envision, you can achieve!sm
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