Gym Classes Get Virtual
When I was growing up, gym class prepared us for the dog-eat-dog world of adulthood. I'm talking, of course, about the blood sport of dodgeball, where inflicting
humiliation and pain on others by pounding them -- preferably in the
head -- with a ginormous rubber ball was the name of the game.
Today, even this last bastion of good old American values is falling to the pressures of a sissified youth. The instigator: a Japanese video game called Dance Dance Revolution that is infiltrating middle school gym classes from Hawaii to West Virginia. Unlike most video games, DDR is a whole body experience, requiring players get off their heinies and dance in ever more intricate and strenuous combinations to the pounding beat of techno.
Traditionally, physical education was about team sports and was very skills oriented," said Chad Fenwick, who oversees physical education for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where about 40 schools now use Dance Dance Revolution. "What you're seeing is a move toward activities where you don't need to be so great at catching and throwing and things like that, so we can appeal to a wider range of kids."
In other words, kids can totally suck at sports and still work up a good sweat, minus the blood and tears. Everyone's a winner. Isn't that nice.*
P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs [NY Times]
I don't know where this sarcasm is coming from, although I did go see Lewis Black's Red, White and Screwed last Friday. Probably wore off on me.
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