You've read the stories about middle school students who work an hour or two on a soup line to better understand the poor or even camp out overnight so they can empathize with the homeless. Don't worry that their time is being wasted -- this is actually good career training if they asprire to carry on the work of Morgan Spurlock.
That genius, who figured out that eating nothing but fast food all the time might not be healthy, has lately been embarked on a project for TV called "30 days," in which he spends that amount of time trying to understand what other walks of life are like. His most recent escapade was to spend 30 days in jail. Of course, he did not stick it out for the whole time:
“He lived in a cell like everybody else. We treated him just like an inmate," said Sheriff Mike Wade. “Of course he didn't stay with any of the capital murderers."
Wade did reveal that Spurlock spent 72 hours in solitary confinement, went to church, tutored inmates, and worked 15-hour shifts in the kitchen.
According the Wade, Spurlock did not “serve” his full 30 day sentence because he was more than satisfied with the footage he had obtained over the 23 days.
Of course he did not "live in a cell like everybody else." He knew he had his real life waiting for him when this lark was over. The other people in jail -- even those "good people who had merely done something wrong" he was so shocked to find -- were in the middle of their real lives, with limited options Spurlock will never understand. He might as well try to understand dying by living in a hospice for 30 days. But maybe that will be his next project. My disdain for his work seems to be a minority opinion.
