This is one of those “your tax money at work” sort of stories. In the local paper (The Daily Camera) there’s an article about a children’s playground area opening up in the local mall, FlatIron Crossing. Apparently, the first grade class from Mountain View Elementary School in Broomfield had a field trip to the mall playground area. Worse, their lunch was “catered by McDonald’s”.

This just astonishes me. What the heck is a school doing having a field trip to a mall? Then, to make this article maximally bizarre, the kids are quoted as “talking about how to get their parents to bring them back over the weekend — which is exactly the mall’s goal.” So, did the mall pay the school to shove its marketing message down the throats of these innocent 6 and 7 year olds?

No, probably not. I forget that the rest of the world marches to the beat of a different drummer. Demonstrating this, two more quotes:

“It’s like an intermission from shopping,” Gilbertson [39] said. “Instead of being a selfish mom I can take my kids here to play in between my shopping.”

“When your kids are relaxed and not agitated, then you can shop more.” said [Kerri] Hinkle, as she fed her infant son and watcher her other son play.”

This seems more like an article from The Onion, somehow, a parody, but… it’s not. It’s really how our tax money is being spent, and how schools are taking kids on field trips to help them learn about the world around them, enrich their childhoods, and expand their horizons.

All I can do is end with the quote “when your kids are relaxed… you can shop more.” Very scary. Very, very scary.