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Video Games in Gym Class - DDR 101?
Saige writes: "When I was in school, gym class was basketball, running laps, and icky locker rooms. Today, kids get to play video games - and get credit for them! No, it is not as bad as it seems. Apparently, someone has become clued in that Dance Dance Revolution promotes physical activity, and a school in California is making use of that. Can I go back and retake gym?"
This is not that much different than the "mat" for the track and field game that used to be available for the origional NES (Nintendo).
:-)
Used to be pretty good excersize. I remember working up quite a sweat as a kid on one of those, I can see why it may be used gym. After two days of using it, my parents made me take in down the basement to play it.
Ahh, the memories...
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
This video game thing is pathetic. This country goes more downhill every year.
I hated gym class too. Golf, softball, dodgeball and all the other crap they had you do was a joke. I was the captain of my XC team, and gym class destroyed my season junior year b/c of an @$$hole in gym class blindsiding me playing basketball and fracturing my foot.
Sports are great. H.S. gym has always been lame. Video games just add to the lameness. My opinion is if you participate in a sport, you should't be required to take gym class at all. Oh well.
I forgot to mention this in my previous post-
I attended public high school (back in the last century). Our gym equipment was pathetic, particularly the weightlifting equipment and the sports balls. They even had lacrosse sticks that appeared to be made out of bamboo. Public high schools should buy basketballs that still bounce and soccer nets without holes in them before they spend $8000 on a video game.
I'm sorry, but high school sucks enough without arrogant liberals like yourself trying to suck every last pleasure out of life. Come on, being able to get a freakin SODA POP at school shouldn't be a controversy.
"raise money for the school (and large companies)."
Or maybe they are there because people enjoy drinking soda. Please stop seeing life through a narrow Marxist lense. Gosh, Heaven forbid people buying things and enjoying them. Must be a conspiracy...
Brian Ellenberger
Depends on the county. Where I went to HS it was against county rules to have a publicly accessible cola machine (ok, it's Atlanta - Coke machine. Anything else would've been heresy). There was one in the teacher's lounge, but that's it. Rules may've changed in the past decade or so, but that's how it was at my school. Several neighboring counties didn't have the prohibitions though - I recall going to some school competition at another school and envying their availability of Cokes.
Frankly, however, "flavoured sugar water" or no there's a serious issue with phys ed in schools today. I'll admit I never really enjoyed it in grade school or high school, but I still understood the need for it then, and I see it even more so now. Many schools have dropped the daily physical education class for a regular classroom course, some have eliminated PE entirely. This is not only sending the wrong message to kids (ok, I question how many "messages" we should expect schools to send as opposed to parents, but still), but it also eliminates one of the few outlets for kids to cut out stress from the school day.
I've never seen, much less played, DDR, but if it gets kids to want to excercise and is effective, more power to the teachers innovative enough to make use of it.
(Apologize to Matt Groening) - every generation or so parents and other authorities get their collective panties in a wad about "Kids aren't getting enough exercise!" and demand that legislators "do something about it" - such was the case in the late 60's when teachers got the orders to corral all us 5th graders into the gym and start doing exercises. Our gym was a very noisy place, bad acoustics, several classes at a time full of kids shouting, screaming, etc. I'm struggling with this routine called 'rocking chair' (12-2-3-4, 13-2-3-4, 14-2-3-4, ...) but the instructor (A Christian fundamentalist type math teacher) sees me lagging behing and shouts something at me. I said "What?" and he shouts again, still couldn't make it out. Finally someone in front of me turns around and says, "He said 'do you think you can do these exercises?'" so I shout back at him, "Yes!". At that he marches around to me and starts with the Sgt. Carter drill routine, like "Drop down and give me 20!!", singled out, public humiliation, the whole sad scene. Once that ordeal was over, after class talking with some other kids I found out what he really yelled was, "Do you think you're too good to do these exercises?"
I've abhored physical exercise ever since.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Exercise and diet both play important roles in overall health. School can limit a child's options as to what they can eat at school in way of school lunches or vending machines, but that's about it. For the most part, good eating habits, and learning to eat healthy foods is learnt at home.
As for exercise, that can be taught at school, by quality Physical Education instructors. (Which are in short supply I think). It's sad that too many PE teachers treat PE as not much different than slightly organized recess. PE should be used to teach kids to pursue active lifestyles and to enjoy recreation. Even those that aren't in the best current phsyical shape can learn this.
Anyway, diet is something that is mostly learnt at home, and probably at a very early age. Physical activity can be taught in many places.
What?
They need to be taught that it is something they need to do their whole life, not just in gym class. Look at the percentage of kids from your gym class that still have a highly active lifestyle? Especially those that aren't involved in sports anymore? It does make a difference.
In elementary school, it will be hard for the kids to see the value of it aside from having fun, but in middle school/high school, they can understand the value of an active lifestyle.
What?
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
You, obviously, have never even seen DDR.
First of all, it is not a sit-and-play game. Just the opposite - you play by using your feet to step on four directional sensors in time to the music, with steps provided by the game. Even the easy levels can be a workout. The hard levels are amazing to watch, and I can tell are really strenuous.
The whole point of using this game is that it requires a lot of physical activity. Video game doesn't instanenously mean sitting-on-your-behind anymore...
BTW - go find yourself a DDR machine and try it out, it is incredibly fun.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
If you are "sitting" in front of DDR then you are not playing the game properly.
Sure, there are "hand-held" controllers for the game, but that really defeats the purpose of playing.
OTOH, I suspect that you actually have no idea how DDR works and instead you are spounting off garbage based on your ignorance rather than actually bothering to learn about the subject because doing so would actually require effort.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
The arcade machine has many advantages over the home console. For one, the pads need to be durable, strong, and solid. Home pads really, really don't have the same strength or feel. The arcade machine is also a solid one-piece whereas the console has all sorts of cords and things to be tripped over and broken, a television to smash, and a PS2 to steal. Not to mention those crafty students that would slip in a copy of GTA3 when the advisor wasn't looking.
The arcade machines are vastly superior to the home consoles, in basically all ways. PS2's skip, the pads slide, you can't feel your feet, there is no bar in back to hold yourself up, there isn't a coinbox... Really, for serious usage the arcade machine is the only way to go. Most serious dancers I know have a full machine.
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