A New Zealand boys’ school is taking drastic steps to get boys to read more: bribery. Rongotai College in Wellington offers boys a can of soda if they can prove they’ve read two books, a voucher from Subway for five books, and a movie voucher for ten books. The dedicated few who are able to read twenty books get a mobile phone voucher.
No mention of the quality of the reading students must do in order to receive their prizes. Is Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopy Pants rated as highly in this program as The Odyssey? Also, the math seems a bit odd: two books for a can of soda, and twenty books for cell phone minutes? Perhaps the program will yield a side study of what incentives are really important to kids these days.
The school claims that the program is effective, and says that the number of books borrowed from the library has doubled since its inception. Yet to be seen, though, is whether these students are forming life-long habits, or are learning that reading is only worth doing if there’s a prize attached. [Via The Guardian]
–Rachel Frier
Photo: Panoramio