Boy Kicked Out Of Reading Competition Because He Reads Too Much

[Nay]

43. But the goal of this summer activity was to get more children to read over the summer. IMHO,

it was counterproductive to couch it in the form of a "contest" with one winner and a bunch of losers in the first place, and I think a lot of posters are trying to say that. In a real contest, like football, there ARE winners and losers because that is the nature of the game that is being played.

It should have been presented to all children as an opportunity to earn a prize by meeting a goal. The school sets the goal (10 books, 20 books, whatever), determines how to certify the books have been read, and those who show enough individual initiative to read the required amount get prizes.

IOW, we set it up so that ALL the children can potentially be winners if they apply themselves. We do that because we want to encourage reading, encourage goal setting, and the perfect outcome would be that all kids meet the goal and get a prize because they have done the work required.