North Vista Primary School in Singapore has introduced a new element to its physical education classes — the Nintendo Wii. Using Wii Sports, the school has students playing games for two weeks of the program. Principal Phua Kia Wang elaborated on the decision to add gaming consoles to gym class:
The usual games concept in PE seemed insufficient, and may not be relevant when the kids go home. For instance, when they go home, does everyone have a basketball court (to play in)? Will they have the people to make up the teams to play with? We don’t want what we teach in school to be so isolated from real life.
Does anyone else find it hilarious that a principal is using the Wii so that kids don’t feel isolated from “real life”? Ha! Wang does have a point though — in cities like Singapore, a lot of kids have easier/more access to a Wii than a basketball court or tennis court. While I loved gym class as a boy, I would have had way more fun in “playing games” class — I’d ace that mofo for sure!
Source via Game Politics
i think that that is pretty interesting for sure, it reminds me of the school in NYC that is using all video games for their classes (spore, civilization, and a few others i cant remember now). The concept is great, but i like the concept better in the school in NYC rather than phys ed. Like i said the concept is great, but for me there is no substitute for real physical activity.
I also used to be a runner and a soccer player though, so for me i could engage in physical activity fairly easily on my own wherever i wanted.
@bsukenyan I totally agree with you. It might sound a bit hypocritical considering what I do and what I enjoy, but when I have kids, I rather spend $400 to buy them a bicycle instead of a console. (Besides, I'll probably have the console for "work" anyway.)
@rpad Yeah i know what you mean with spending more money on something else for your kids like that. I will still keep consoles and video games around by the boat loads. But even with as much as i love to sit around and do nothing but play video games (or post about them) when i should be doing homework or some reading for a class, i still am very much in favor of physical activity.