Librarian's Rant

After the great Gaming in Libraries pre-conference I took at Computers in Libraries a couple of weeks ago (thanks, Aaron and Jenny!), I took great interest in this NY Times article today:

P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Children don’t often yell in excitement when they are let into class, but as the doors opened to the upper level of the gym at South Middle School here one recent Monday, the assembled students let out a chorus of shrieks.

In they rushed, past the Ping-Pong table, past the balance beams and the wrestling mats stacked unused. They sprinted past the ghosts of Gym Class Past 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.

My favorite part of this article is the photo, where kids who are waiting are doing the moves along with the participants. This is so encouraging! And the de-emphasis on competition and skill competence, especially with awkward junior high-age kids, is wonderful. When I remember the torture of jr. high gym class...