Picky

On Friday my chemistry class will celebrate Mole Day. (One of the complications of coming up with a fun activity is that, if it is done once, all future classes will hear about it and will expect to do the same activity when they come through the ranks.) Mole Day is celebrated every October 23, from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. Yes, there is significance to the date and times - look up the chemical definition of a "mole" if you're not sure why.

Anyway, we always have food, which has to include the word "mole" or something else chemistry-related in the name. Examples: spaghetti and meatmoles, water-mole-n, buffamole chicken wings, oatmole cookies. Well, I told the students today that I will bring a hashbrown cassermole. One of the girls immediately wrinkled her nose and said "Does it have onions in it? I don't like anything with onions in it." I told her that if she doesn't like it, don't eat it.

A couple of weeks ago we did a small density experiment that included gummi bears. I gave the class the extra ones to eat. You wouldn't believe all the students who would eat ONLY red gummi bears, or ONLY the white ones.

It's not just this class. I've seen it repeatedly. Young people have too many choices today - and thus they have gotten too picky. It's an outgrowth of too much "stuff" in general. I remember various times of taking a carload of kids through a McDonalds or Burger King line, and would have to order, for example, "four cheeseburgers, one with everything, one with no mustard, one plain, one with just ketchup. In itself there's nothing wrong with that - but when the trend is there for young people (and older people too for that matter) to always have things exactly like they want them - that's not a healthy trend for the person or for society.

Off my soapbox now. More about Mole Day after the celebration. I may post a few Mole Day jokes on here. Readers will groan.