DDR Coming To West Virginia Schools

Next Generation is reporting that Konami is bringing Dance Dance Revolution to 765 state public schools in West Virginia. The move is intended to counteract the growing youth obesity problem facing the United States. From the article: "'Bringing the health benefits and enjoyment that DDR provides to school children is a great way to combat childhood obesity that is caused by the sedentary lifestyle of today's kids,' said Konami's Clara Gilbert, director of business partnerships. 'DDR has been a proven success in schools and this program with the State of West Virginia demonstrates the positive effects that can come from making DDR a part of one's daily routine. This first-of-its-kind partnership will help us continue to demonstrate the benefits of DDR to consumers around the country.'" On one hand, that's awesome. On the other, if I was still in middle school, I think DDRing in front of middle school girls would be a sure way to cause permanent psychic scarring. Update: 01/25 21:34 GMT by Z : HTML is hard. Fixed link.

Comments

Will the obese play?

[fishybell]

What's stopping the "cool" kids (who are already active) from preventing the obese kids (mostly uncool due to aforementioned obesity) from playing?

I say instead give a standalone DDR like machine to every obese kid. That way they can sweat to the oldies (or techno or whatever) in the comfort of their own home.

Re:Will the obese play?

[csbrooks]

I play DDR sometimes at the local Peter Piper Pizza. I've seen some overweight kids going to town there. They were pretty good, too.

I don't think it'll be a problem. Yeah, you move your body, but it's all about reacting quickly to stuff on the screen. I mean, basically, it's a videogame.

Re:Will the obese play?

[mendaliv]

I'm a college student weighing in at over 300lbs., and I also play DDR. I own my own pad and play on occasion, though not nearly as much as I used to.

Honestly, if you gave each kid his own cheapo pad and SM... or even a PS2 and a pad, he won't play it. Before I started playing, I thought that DDR was some stupid game that losers with no life play (like I was one to talk).

It took some peer pressure to start, and I sucked badly. It takes some time to get the coordination before it's more a matter of speed. Obese kids are going to get bored or frustrated by that point, especially in high school. I can't imagine the ridicule that'd be directed at the "dancing bear" in gym class.

So what I'm getting at here is that these kids need a supportive environment to start playing in, much more than anything. DDR is most certainly not fun if you're new to it and uncoordinated.

for christ sake

[ryanelm]

whatever happened to exercising without a $500 machine, it might make America's youth less of technology addicts (current company excluded, of course).

Back in the day....

[eldavojohn]

There was this game we used to play what was it called?

Oh, right, kickball.

How much did it cost to play this?

The cost of a ball or nothing if you had a butcher shop willing to give you an pig's stomach.

Thank god West Virginia has been blessed with DDR. Were it not for this half a grand machine, they might go down in history as morbidly obese like their forefathers.

What? Their forefathers weren't morbidly obese? You mean, it may be possible to have fun and excersize without some company cashing in off of you? Blasphemy!

DDR? 2/3 wrong letters

[dada21]

The proper role of education is RRR - Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. The idea that a school (a public one no less) should be enforcing diet or exercise or moral structure or anything other than a basic education is crazy.

How about we stop funding these nutjobs who want to be parents to our children, no educators?

Who needs consoles?

[OldManAndTheC]

Why not just teach them real dancing?

Stupid waste of money.

[MaWeiTao]

What an idiotic waste of money.

Want to keep their weight down? Have students sweep and clean school grounds every morning like they do in much of Asia. This will have other benefits beyond just getting exercise, in the very least you'll save money and keep the school clean. Put them through a more rigorous exercise program than the useless nonsense that passes for gym class. Obviously the existing system has its problems if they continue having obesity problems, and a bunch of video games wont change this.

How about teaching them dancing for real? It's a hell of a lot more effective than bouncing around like a fool on a giant pad and it will actually be useful outside of that game.

Where the hell do they find the people who run these schools?