Thursday, December 20, 2012

So How Normal is Fast Food in Our Children's Lives?

When you were a kid how often did your family eat out?

In my family it was exceedingly rare.

Yet nowadays for many families it's an entirely normal, and if not everyday then certainly every week, part of life.

Psychologist Angela Pfammatter sent me a picture yesterday that in a sense helps to illustrate how normal fast food has become. It's so normal that a group of Canadian teachers created a math book for Grade 3-6 students to learn math skills by means of,
"Real-Life, Fast Food Menu Situations"
Here's a shot of some of the menus:


Long sigh.

Sure they might learn some math, but no doubt in so doing they'll be further normalizing the notion of convenience meals - something that truly wasn't "normal" when we were kids but clearly is something that is pathologically normal now.