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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?
Good to see good ole Okaloosa County doin' something grand...
In that county school system (my old one, I was at Niceville High), Fort Walton Beach high school would get the "less desirable" kids.. I guess they were just tryin' to help some of 'em get through school, w/out failing in PE, as they have enough problems already
And yes, in Okaloosa County, we had to take 2 years of PE classes, and they were in fact graded, A-F.. one semister was a dual health education/PE class, but the others generally used "improvement" methods.. so however well you did at the beginning of the semister in running a mile, push-ups, sit ups, long jumps.. You damn well do better by the end of the semister, or you would in fact get a crappy grade, or worse.. and I knew people who failed PE, which then in fact seriously affected their lives (one of whom dropped out)
--Less Thinkin', More Drinkin'...
My High School has a freakishly popular DDR club. I've never been (it meets on the same day as Computer Club, and I'm President of that), but I hear its fun.
I took physics in high school. A very good course in basic newtonian physics, from a very good instuctor who was a retired NASA astrophysist.
If it's not on fire, it's a software problem.
I think the reason people find sports games so fun is because they're the same as other fantasy games, except you know the rules coming in. It's more familiar. If you think about it, the goal is the same, get a lot of points, while preventing your opponent from doing well. Plus, I think a lot of jocks like video games but won't admit to themselves that a nerdy pasttime like playing video games actually is fun. But that's just my observations based on having a roommate who only plays sports games, and won't even play anything else. :)
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
When making this point, though, remember one thing about school starting from high school onwards (in most areas): algebra and basic mathematics are not taught in the same classroom.
My PE classes in high school consisted of roughly 50-100 students, with no division based on ability. The kid with a bad limp from a car accident was in the same class as the star football player, and the football coaches were usually PE teachers. I'm really not complaining about my own PE classes in that they were graded on effort, attendance, and improvement, so everyone was graded against their own performance over time. The atmosphere, though, tends to be very hostile towards underperforming students, even if they're doing very well in terms of what grade they will receive. You could fulfill the graduation requirements for math without even taking algebra (there were 4 or 5 levels of math taught at lower levels than the first algebra class I took in high school, and you were only required to take 3), so the kids that were good at math were rarely in the same class as the ones that were not. On the other hand, the quarterback was in the same math classes as myself all the way through AP calculus, and though he acted stupid, said stupid things, and didn't always catch on quickly, he could manage it just fine.
Remember, schools are supposed to be in the occupation of education. That includes education of the body as much as it does the mind.
Perhaps if my experience showed that PE teachers actually took the time to educate the minds as to why they should be doing those particular activities I'd agree. It seems to me that by the time high school rolls around most students have a fairly good idea of what activities they enjoy, and the school should be able to handle a little more specialization if they're going to require PE. Then again, PE was only a 2-year requirement when I was in high school, so I can't say it really impacted me in any way except to increase my course-load in my first 2 years of high school (not that it mattered since there wasn't any homework or books for PE, but it did mean I spent an hour longer in school those two years than I did the next two years).
-PainKilleR-[CE]