They rushed, past the Ping-Pong table, the balance beams, the wrestling mats... toward two TV sets looming over square plastic mats on the floor. In less than a minute a dozen seventh graders were dancing in furiously kinetic union to the thumps of a techno song called “Speed Over Beethoven.”Bill Hines, a physical education teacher at the school for 27 years, shook his head a little, smiled and said, “I’ll tell you one thing: they don’t run in here like that for basketball.”
It is a scene being repeated across the country as schools deploy the blood-pumping video game Dance Dance Revolution as the latest weapon in the nation’s battle against the epidemic of childhood obesity.
While traditional video games are often criticized for contributing to the expanding waistlines of the nation’s children, at least several hundred schools in at least 10 states are now using Dance Dance Revolution, or D.D.R., as a regular part of their physical education curriculum.
This from the New York Times. Photo by Michael Temchine for The New York Times.
1 comment:
I do agree that obesity is a growing problem. I also believe that when we started worrying about adding the extra classes such as art, chorus, and other "special" classes, we decided that physical education of the children was not as important. This is where our school systems have hurt our children. Most children have gym a couple times a week or (like my daughter) has gym for one six week period. This is not going to show our children that being active is good. We need to bring back physical education so our obesity numbers will go down.
Post a Comment