[Anisa_Mirza]

No. Respectfully, I do not share these concerns because we have grounded our approach in neuroscience of motivation rather than philosophical lore. By following the psychology of positive dopamine conditioning, we are helping children fall in love with reading, developing reading as a life long habit and helping them see real measurable results month over month (in just 4 months, comprehension went up by 70 percent, phonics by 40% and the average kid is reading for 40 minutes a day when they used to read less than 5 minutes daily).

These numbers have real impact. What the impact data I shared above will not show you is that our kids parents comment on the confidence their child develops after 2 months on the app. How they go from never raising their hand to speak in the weekly live to being eager to answer every question and be part of all discussions about the book in the weekly live meetup with their cohort in the app.

These numbers have real impact. Kids in the app are not rewarded with any use or monetary prize beyond their first tournament. Yet after the first month, reading levels do not drop and growth in phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension still keep increasing (students have to do A LOT of work in the app beyond just reading. There is full reading courseware with quizzes, worksheets and mini lessons - our courseware is built on the Science Of Reading philosophy).

These numbers have real impact. Most of our parents could never get their children to take up reading. We don't just motivate kids with flashy use promotional tournament prizes. We turn movies into full n books and cartoons. All shot and filmed in our downtown Brooklyn studio. We have directors, producers, actors, recording artists and more - all to bring a book to life on screen. Children unlock episodes by doing the required daily reading and reading courseware. We are committed to making kids feel learning is fun. THAT is the intrinsic motivation we see as our duty to cultivate.

To reference The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (because why not), all of these concerns were part of the Primer's issues with Nell in the Diamond Age. Yet, when Miranda (via the Primer) realized Nell was not intrinsically motivated, they used tactics like bringing the subject matter to life enacted experiences or gamification like solving puzzles to motivate her. And in the end, it worked. She went from being a girl in extreme poverty with no interest in learning to becoming successful and the leader of her Phyle (tribe).

We are creating enabling environments to promote learning. It works. It is grounded in the neuroscience of motivation. As for the rest, I will let the philosophers philosophize.