To the Mall or Not to the Mall.

I have observed a disturbing trend among our Vancouver 'Tween population.  While on its surface, it may not seem to be too much of a concern to the adults in the community, it illustrates a severe lack of resources for our underage children to be involved in community activities.  This trend is:  The mall. Located in the south end of our district, the Vancouver Mall is surrounded by a significant portion of Gaiser's population.  Frequently, during Story Slam Mondays, many of our students regale our Drama classes with tales of their exploits at the mall over the weekend.

These stories often begin with, "me and (the more people involved in the entourage the better) went to the mall.  When we were there we saw (insert pupil's name) and (insert other notable names... the more popular, the better)..."  Once the desired level of validation has been achieved, the stories begin.  They usually take two paths.  The first being what they witnessed, and the second being what they caused.

Witnessing activities tends to be one of the top activities of young teens at the mall.  Viewing criminal activities tends to be a top rated witnessing event.  Retelling the action packed events surrounding a crime in action and the ensuing dramatic capture is one that lights up the eyes of my preteen students.  The next most popular tale to tell is to embellish the antics of a known peer.  Telling tales about running into another student who was causing some sort of feral disruption is highly rated on the retale meter.  Students laugh and revel in name dropping and creating associations with the wayward activities that occur at the mall.

But by far the most popular Monday mall story is that of being "kicked out of the mall."  This story falls  under the causal path.  We listen to highlights of students who are walking into stores to try things on just to play dress up. We hear as students talk of looking for inappropriate things to tease their friends with.  We hear as students accuse others of stealing items from stores, throw food in the food court, scream from the balconies or dance in the stairwells.  Most of these activities end with students being "unfairly" accosted by security, and thrown out of the mall.  This is like a badge of honor.  The longer the banning from the mall the higher the honor.  Of course, indifference to consequence is essential.  A student must grow their story to the most inflated levels, but must not, by any means, be fazed by the consequences.  Too cool for the mall is the key to being respected and admired by your peers.

The mall is placed in a great location for many of our students.  It does serve as sort of a town square for many.  It houses community resources and entertainment for those who shop there, but the key word here is "shop".  The mall in a consumer driven locale designed specifically to drive people to spend.

Most of our students who live near the mall are dealing with higher mobility rates and a generally lower SES.  If a student lives by the mall it can generally be assumed that the child is living in a rental, spending approximately 1 hour a day on the bus for transportation to and from school, is on free or reduced lunch, is unable to participate in after school sports and programs due to their distance from the school and, as is often the case, from a broken home.  These are the children who are spending the majority of their off time at the mall, unsupervised. They are developing their own social hierarchy, which is leading them to view consumerism and disruptive and sometimes criminal behavior as not only desirable, but the norm.

Our south end students need some alternatives.  They need more options that will allow them to enter into activities with their groups of friends but still remain supervised.  They need to be able to explore age appropriate options with some supervision, but be able to enter in with empty pockets and no expectation that they spend money, either theirs or their parents.  While we do have some options for students to become athletically involved, like the Naydenov  Gymnastics Center, these options do cost money, and require students become physically active.  This just does not work for some of our students.  I am hoping that this site can help to facilitate some options for our students to be able to find alternatives to "Cruising the mall" in their spare time.  Any links, comments or suggestions will help to bring our children out of the mall and into our world.