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Sports Videogame Student Enticements Banned
Thanks to the Miami Herald for their article discussing the banning a Florida school's plans to use sports-based videogames as a motivator for students taking physical education. According to the piece: "Fort Walton Beach High School wanted to use a PlayStation as part of a team sports course in the next school year as a way of motivating more students to take physical education", but "Superintendent Don Gaetz halted registration for the course Tuesday, calling it 'an idea whose time will never come.'" In a situation which sees "obesity rising among teens and that more than half of the state's high school students not participating in any physical activity at school last year", could attracting students with videogames actually be a valid approach?
In High School, when I discovered the DDR machine at an arcade, I always imagined how cool it would be to show up to school one day, and have a machine or two waiting in the gym.
Combined with a weightlifting or co-ed aerobics class, this is a luring way to weight loss. I don't see why some school somewhere hasn't picked up on this "aerobic entertainment" yet. I think it would be a good way to get all those kids who beg their Dr. for a note to stay out of PE back in the active world.
Many schools, the last time I looked, weren't actually using a letter based grade anymore, they were simply using 'Pass' or 'Fail'. Theoretically, though I'm sure there are PE instructors out there who prove otherwise, it's worth stating...
You are not being graded at all based upon if you can do something or not. You're PE grade has nothing to do with if you did a certain number of situps by a certain ammount of time. Your grade has everything to do with if you bothered to try at all -- If you participated and made the effort.
There's plenty of students who wish to use whatever condition they have, real or imagined as an excuse to not even attempt. There are, of course, certain situations where this is entirely valid... However, I think it's an alarming trend in society, especially to be embraced by students where the problem isn't an obstacle so much as it is a crutch to wave in people's faces.
A good PE instructor isn't out to make anyone feel left out or inferior. It's to make everyone try and work together and improve what they can and find out what strengths they may have. And this is coming from a mediocre PE student at best. I couldn't run, I couldn't do a billion situps, I was generally weak and couldn't shoot a basket to save my life... but I sure kicked my class's ass at dodgeball.
On another note -- While I find DDR's idea of electronic music to be kinda fruity and I think a lot of it is silly, I do see merit in people using it as a good excuse for exercise. I've known several people who shed a lot of weight over one summer when they took up DDR and cut down on the soda. I almost envy them.
I think perhaps Konami could find a market in producing an 'Educational' version of DDR for use in American schools. I'd actually support such an idea if executed properly.
I can't entirely agree with this. Yes, teachers need to be sensitive to the less able sportsmen in the class, but there are vital lessons in life learned in PE lessons. Such as, discipline and teamwork - two traits that have been far more use in my adult life than algerbra or familiarity with the works of shakespear.
While thinking is an important activity, should the schools be in the business of providing instruction in algebra? Even if so, should it be a requirement and should it be graded? A student with mental retardation will always fail through no fault of his own.
In the end, algebra provides no preparation for life which other classes at least provide a semblence of. There is nothing that algebra provides that cannot be acquired via after-school activities. There is no "how fast can you factor this quadratic equation" test for any job that one would reasonably encounter in the private sector.
Algebra has outlived its purpose and should be done away with. If the result is a generation of stupid kids, then so be it.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
You know...I never really understood the appeal of sports games. I was always of the mindset that if one wants to play sports, one should do so for real and not play a computer simulation of his or her sport of choice.
;-) ) to Look to the Sky or Midnight Blaze.
Now...I suppose that having students play videogames in class WOULD raise some eyebrows-incredulity in parents and administrators, interest in students-but wouldn't it be somewhat counter-intuitive? If PE is supposed to promote physical activity and fitness...sports or no sports, it's still a videogame, and still exercises only the hands and mind. (then again, exercising the mind isn't a bad ides)
Were they to use DDR as some others have mentioned, it would at least make more sense. Hell...I'd have enjoyed gym class far more than only in my final year of high school if I could've danced (badly, mind you...apparently we Irish have no coordination, Michael Flatley notwithstanding
Oh, yeah, the Irish bit was a joke-no offense intended (I'm insulting myself as much as anyone else anyway)
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Exercising and staying healthy is an extremely important part of life. It's not one you have to participate in if you don't want to - just as you don't have to learn basic math, if you're dead set on being ignorant.
A good PE class gives instruction on how to do these things, and introduces students to a wide variety of activities. Sure, they could figure these things out after class, but you could say that about Calculus as well.
It's just like 'Health' class. It's all pretty simple stuff, like use condoms and eat vegetables, but if they didn't tell us, some people might truly never know.
This, by the way, is coming from a person who hated PE in high school. I got to college, and realized that exercise actually could be fun, make me look better and have more energy. Neglecting your body is just as bad as neglecting your mind.
My $0.02
A good start to help control obesity among teens would be to stop putting candy and soda machines in their schools. Having them sit on their ass for an hour every day playing Mario Kart would *not* help.
Most people who have a problem with PE because it's "pointless and ego-busting" forget the fact that, to a jock, academic subjects are exactly the same. And I don't think most people would advocate the abolition of schooling just because some people don't like the subjects that schools teach.
Remember, schools are supposed to be in the occupation of education. That includes education of the body as much as it does the mind.
Rob