Take A Look; It's In A Book

A recent post on reddit reminded me of yet another reason things were better back in childhood—remember Book It!? Sure you do. A collaboration between Pizza Hut and schools that began back in ’84, where students would collect tiny star stickers for each book they completed, culminating in a free pizza from the restaurant chain once they’d received a whole button’s worth of stickers.

For a few sweet, sweet years in elementary school, the personal pan pizzas seemed to come faster than we could devour them. We’d happily trade the latest Babysitters’ Club for a pepperoni, or the spookiest Goosebumps for extra cheese, please. For me, it was a reward for something I enjoyed doing, anyway. For others, maybe it took a little effort, or a little cajoling on behalf of their teachers. But come Friday night, when your parents took you to Pizza Hut all because you’d plowed through a couple of quick chapter books? Well worth the effort.

Now I’m 25, and nobody is offering me pizza in exchange for doing anything, let alone leisure reading. But why not? Why do the incentives for good behavior—pizza for books, prizes for good grades, crisp $1 bills for lost teeth—end at childhood? It is, as they say, not fair.

Being an adult is hard work. I wouldn’t mind a little incentive here and there for getting things done. Put the laundry away? Here’s an ice cream sandwich! Show up to work on time every day for a week? Have a cheeseburger. Pay your taxes? Gee whiz, have a whole pizza party!

And it doesn’t all have to be food. I’d happily accept incentives in the form of beer, material goods, or even better, cash money. Sure, we get paid to do our jobs, but who’s rewarding us for getting up when our alarm clocks go off or cleaning errant hairs out of the sink or checking the oil in our cars? This grown-up stuff is tough, and a little encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

I put away three separate loads of laundry last night. I’ll be expecting my ice cream sandwiches shortly.