Playgrounds for Nerds

At the playground the other day, I happened to notice the above little built in section hidden under the slides and platforms and had to laugh. You can't really tell super well from the photo, but they're spinning dials that form math problems and you can solve for the question marks. I guess you're supposed to make a game out of it and see who can figure it out the fastest - but really...what kid is going to voluntarily play with this?

Or at least, this was my thought, right before I though how cool it was. Cause I'm the kid that would probably have enjoyed such a thing.

It's nice to see that playgrounds are continuing the time honored tradition of keeping the smart kids beaten down though. It's not enough that you lack the arm strength to do the monkey bars or that you really don't enjoy running about madly - now you can still play! If you want to run the risk of being seen making up math equations during recess, that is.

The doodle thought it was great - but that's really because of the question marks. He would spin them until the question mark was showing and shout, "Mystery Mouseketool!" Before running off to climb up the slide again.