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You know, somehow this article implies that these are poor, underpriveliged kids. I'm not even sure how it does it, but that was the impression I got until I saw the cities.

Pacific Palisades (cheapest house: $550,000), Venice (cheapest house: $339,000), Marina del Rey (cheapest house: $425,000), Santa Monica (cheapest house $320,000), etc.

It seems to me that the kids went through a healthy amount of brainwashing before they started the trip, and the trip was carefully arranged to emphasize what they'd already been told.

If it made them more interested in the world around them and more involved, it might have been worth it. I thought their encounter with their fellow kids after they returned was interesting - most of them weren't curious, or wanted to be "cool" by not admitting curiosity, and I think that's a darn shame.

I'm still distinctly uncomfortable with the brainwashing.