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Ok, so a kid that hates reading probably would'nt join such a reading club and will not discover the "joy of reading" that way. However there are a lot of kids that "like" reading but are a bit slower and there are those that are just beginning to like reading, to get to the point where it is no a struggle anymore. They are probably the kids that the librarian where aiming for, trying tho encourage them. She went about it in the wrong way (I think) and made it a competition that the kid that read fastest won. She then wrongly "blamed" him when it was her rules that missed the target, instead of just rewarding him and then change the rules. When media then called (because the mom called them being upset that her son would possible not win anymore) she could just have said "we wanted to try a new model this year/next year"
It's not wrong with competition, but if the goal is to get more kids to read you don't want them to quit before they have even tried, wich some kids will if they feel the have "no chance" to win. Sure, some kids may go on anyway but most kids stay far away from activities they feel a failure at, as do most adults. People don't wan't to be a failure if they can choose not to be. Setting to high goals that most can't reach will stop people from participating. To challenge people is another thing, that you do by setting the goal high but reachable.
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