Money Madness

Since the recession hit I have really come to notice how much money runs our world. From the time our education starts we are taught the value of money, a lesson which is drilled into us for a lifetime. As has been the case in my life. All throughout elementary school I had what was called "Micro money". It was a system of reward and punishment based on money. It was also used to teach us money management through bank accounts and record keeping. My husband had a similar experience at his elementary school. These imaginary money systems influenced every aspect of our school day. For example, a certain amount of money was required to be able to eat lunch with friends in the cafeteria or even go to recess. It is intriguing to me that money has such a strong emphasis even at such a young age.

The 2 hours I spent taking pictures unnoticed from the second story of the mall shocked me. The first thing that the majority of children did was to stick their hands in for the money, undeterred by the water. Several of the kids went in long sleeves and all.

The boy on the left in this photo took money from the fountain and put it in his pocket without his mom noticing and then proceeded to ask her for money to throw in the fountain. He was not the only child who did this.


These two photos display the most common trends I noticed:
1. The children would just stick their hands out to their parents and expect to be given the money, which they usually were.
2. The parents would hand out coins endlessly until the kids exhausted themselves.

Obviously the value of a dollar only increases with age...