Mad World

We got a flyer from Sienna’s school to go for a presentation show at Mad Science. On stage, they were singing, dancing and making jokes to help us understand certain scientific facts, i.e., the difference between ice and dry ice, the low and high pressures of the air, light traveling in straight lines, etc. Fabulous show. I am impressed. They picked up western improvising style, combined with Chinese vulgarity, like saying, “now take a deep breath, and fart.”

A good presentation would not just end there. They introduced us to the facility, a science enrichment provider, a transplanted Canadian grown franchise. The bottom line is you pay about CND$2,500 to have 120 hours of those entertainment and educational sessions to be used in 18 months. Not outrageous Canadian standard, especially if you want to use those hours to fill up your kids’ summer camp time. In China though, that amount could well be a worker’s annual income. No wonder they only have locations in the most affluent residential areas. In the name of fostering your child’s interests in science, you pay to get your kids to know things they could know through living a life or they still don’t need to know till the ripe age of mine. I believe certain knowledge needs to be learnt in a hard way through hard work. At any rate, I am not buying it. I am proud of myself of being able to resist. The whole country has become a huge sale floor. It’s a whole process for me to learn not to buy under the powerful influence of highly motivated selling wherever I go. What a mad world!