DDR Coming To West Virginia Schools 184
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.
It is a surprising amount of fun... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:DDR? 2/3 wrong letters (Score:2, Interesting)
So you want the same government that promoted the Food Pyramid death trap to teach your kids how to eat and exercise? Sorry, but I'm a pro-fat pro-protein anti-sugar anti-starch kind of guy, and I know that the teachers are teaching kids that bread is good, butter is bad. It is the other way around, friend, and you're going to poison your kids with that garbage.
The problem lies in figuring out what should be common to everyone and what should be left to the individual's family and culture.
There is no common morality as I see it. The only rule I can think that needs to be taught to kids is "don't hurt anyone else, don't hurt their property." The side comment of this is "if two adults share cooperate voluntarily with each other, no one should stop them from transacting any barter or trade." That's it. The parents teach that, the schools teach education. I'm against public funding of education entirely, but stretching it to cover morals or health is ridiculous.
However, way too many parents either don't have the time or inclination to be parents, so often the teachers end up filling that role as best they are able.
In 1980, the household tax burden was under 30% of total income to government at every level.
In 2005, the household tax burden is over 50% of total income to goverment at every level.
You want to know WHY parents don't have time? They're too busy paying off the bad decisions the voters made 20 years ago. End the public education system, dump the property taxes that pay for it, and you'll be able to return mom (or dad) back home to take care of the children. Don't tell me to pay for your bad voting decisions.
The government sees what is happening and tries to take on some of that itself instead of leaving it up to the already-overworked teachers.
Overworked? When teachers have to teach homosexuality, AIDs, exercise, diet, government-written history, and economics to children, of course they are overworked. These are subjects that should come from family-paid higher education or the home, not from teachers. We can cut education to 3 hours per day, refund 70% of the money people pay in taxes for education, and fix the problem in 1 year or less.
If I'd seen it, I'd've grabbed the other kid and made him take me to his parents to let them know what he'd done, and hope they'd agree that was wrong.
I'd have grabbed the kid and called my lawyer. I also wouldn't let my 2 year old be wandering around without me. I wouldn't let my 6 year old or 10 year old do so either. It is the parents' job to monitor their child completely until that child is a major, at which point that adult (no matter the age) is responsible for themselves. If an 8 year old is wandering around alone, he's an adult in my eyes.
Re:Back in the day.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Ultimate Frisby is probably the best option for an all-inclusive sport. With a few frisbies you can break the class up into smaller groups, so that more kids can actually play the game. It requires the good hand-eye coordination that we nerds have built up through years of computer use and masturbating. It is also a lot of fun to play( that is coming from me, some one who generally doesn't like sports).
My Highschool Has been doing this for a while .... (Score:3, Interesting)
The thing is, that almost no one ever used them
The kids who really wanted to get into shape used the weight room, treadmills, and other 'traditional' excercise machines and the kids who didn't want to get into shape weren't going to be fooled by such an obvious ploy.
We were required to wear pulse monitors and our grade depended on our average bpm (I think something around 170+ was an A
No amount of technology is ever going to get people into shape who don't want to be. Working out, almost by definition, involves hard work. People who want to get in shape will manage to regardless of how few tools are available, and people who want to avoid it will always be able to do so (in fact, I think these high tech toys are easier to cheat with).
Dance Dance Revolution May Help Treat ADHD (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides the obvious exercise benefits [getupmove.com], it seems that the Dance Dance Revolution video game may also help out children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A recent study [gamesconference.org] in which sixth-graders with ADHD played DDR Disney Mix for an hour each week suggests that playing the game improved their focus and attention, although further studies are planned to get a better understanding of how it could help kids out.