West Virginia: Still Number One!

Kerry Howley | February 2, 2007

West Virginia, a recent hotbed of anti-fat hilarity, has a new idea for slimming down its scale-tipping public school students:

West Virginia, which has the worst childhood obesity problem in the United States, is stepping up plans to use Konami's Dance Dance Revolution to battle the bulge in its schools.

The state, which plans to put the popular dancing video game in every one of its public schools, said on Wednesday research suggested that it helped put a halt to weight gain.

Said research involved kids playing the game for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week -- a level of Dance Dance commitment that seems unlikely in the context of a schoolweek. And even then the porkers didn't drop pounds, just failed to pile more on.

Comments

|2.2.07 @ 12:56PM|#

This is actually a really good idea.

Hell, I've gained some weight recently. I may try it myself.

|2.2.07 @ 1:00PM|#

BTW, 30 minutes a day to play a game that kids love seems unlikely to you? huh?

Schoolweek or no, that is hardly unrealistic.

|2.2.07 @ 1:04PM|#

You know, there used to be this thing in school, where kids were active for like an hour. Playing sports and various other activities. I wish I could remember what that was called.

Nick

|2.2.07 @ 1:05PM|#

Isn't dancing the gateway sex act?

|2.2.07 @ 1:09PM|#

You know, there used to be this thing in school, where kids were active for like an hour. Playing sports and various other activities. I wish I could remember what that was called.

No! Not..recess! Do you want the district to get sued when someone child skins their knee of breaks their arm? That would cost us MILLIONS! ;)

Franklin Harris|2.2.07 @ 1:11PM|#

Isn't dancing the gateway sex act?

Not Dance Dance Revolution dancing. Noooo way.

|2.2.07 @ 1:12PM|#

Of course, recess wasn't exactly happy times for me back in the day. The only physical activity I participated in was shielding myself from the blows of bullies.

|2.2.07 @ 1:12PM|#

IMHO, once they make it mandatory, DDR will no longer be fun and kids won't want to do it.

|2.2.07 @ 1:15PM|#

Heck, when I was a kid I walked ten miles to school and we didn't have any of that......

|2.2.07 @ 1:27PM|#

You know, every time someone says DDR I think they're talking about a kind of RAM. Or East Germany. It's annoying.

|2.2.07 @ 1:33PM|#

So here they want to force the porkers to lose pounds in West Virginia, while in New York there is a loonbat who wants to make it illegal to use models who are too skinny. What's a person to do?

Warren|2.2.07 @ 1:43PM|#

Really? You can DDR for thirty minutes a day and still not loose weight. That's depressing. Dang, I could use a ... oh never mind.

|2.2.07 @ 2:02PM|#

They had these at my highschool, in the aerobics room. The crazy old gym teachers didn't know what to make of them, but the kids who used them worked up a sweat, so I guess its as effective as running on a treadmill or something.

|2.2.07 @ 2:14PM|#

in New York there is a loonbat who wants to make it illegal to use models who are too skinny.

Reason Pillow Girl, consider yourself warned, nose and all.

|2.2.07 @ 2:15PM|#

Lord Duppy, you might be a nerd if...

|2.2.07 @ 2:37PM|#

A Dance Dance Revolution in all public schools? Sounds awfully suspicious... time to call in the Boston PD.

|2.2.07 @ 2:41PM|#

Come to think of it, I am unaware of there having been a childhood obesity problem in the Deutsches Demokratisches Republik (sp? it's been a long time). That's 2 DDRs with fat-fighting credentials.

Dan T.|2.2.07 @ 2:42PM|#

So…it's "laughable" that schools install exercise equipment in their schools that kids might actually use and improve their health a little? This one seems to fall into the Reason "If the government does it, it must be bad" category.

Now, if an individual or non-government group had donated these game machines to the schools, Reason would run a story about how it was an example of the private sector addressing a health problem that the public schools have been unwilling or unable to tackle themselves.

|2.2.07 @ 2:47PM|#

I thought West Virginia was full of impoverished coal-miners and their starving kids. Now they have a childhood obesity problem?

|2.2.07 @ 2:54PM|#

Oh, the parents are the problem
Giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies
So pander to your pampered little princes
of such enormous size

|2.2.07 @ 3:04PM|#

Nick,
when I was in elementary school, we used to spend recess playing a game called "smear the queer" which basically involved throwing around a ball and assaulting the kid who caught it. I can only imagine how such a thing would go down these days.

Anyway, I'd hate to think that we as a country would experience a paucity of fat frumpy children to make fun of.

I mean, what would Julian Sanchez do with his free time?

Jennifer|2.2.07 @ 3:05PM|#

How can you get fat in a mountainous state where you literally have to walk uphill both ways to get to school and back?

what would Julian Sanchez do with his free time?

Same thing he does now--refuse to fuck you.

Dan T.|2.2.07 @ 3:11PM|#

How can you get fat in a mountainous state where you literally have to walk uphill both ways to get to school and back?

Because the free market has provided cars, I guess.

|2.2.07 @ 3:21PM|#

...which basically involved throwing around a ball and assaulting the kid who caught it.

When I was in school we called that game "Rugby". :)

|2.2.07 @ 4:47PM|#

BTW, 30 minutes a day to play a game that kids love seems unlikely to you? huh?

Schoolweek or no, that is hardly unrealistic.

The real problem, as I see it, is time. How many of these things do we need to put in a school to make sure every single kid can get on one for thirty minutes a day?

Plus, didn't I read somewhere that school's were getting rid of Phys.Ed. because of time/budget constraints? Was I imagining that?

|2.2.07 @ 4:56PM|#

How many of these things do we need to put in a school to make sure every single kid can get on one for thirty minutes a day?

This is Byrd's state; money is not an issue :)

They either need to get the full-blown machine (many of them) or get the Playstation 2 equivalent. Either way, I would love to be the salesguy to take that order.

|2.2.07 @ 5:28PM|#

when I was in elementary school, we used to spend recess playing a game called "smear the queer" which basically involved throwing around a ball and assaulting the kid who caught it.

See also: Trip the Turkey.

Paul|2.2.07 @ 6:50PM|#

*sigh*

Don't these people realize that the only way to really combat obesity is to turn everyone into high-earning, power-walking, water-bottle-sipping, latte-snorting...

Ok, I almost became a cliche of something in someone's head.

|2.2.07 @ 8:27PM|#

This plan doesn't cost money, it makes money. Install cameras and set up a premium area of the school district website.

There's gotta be a market for people who want to watch doughy WV kids pantingly try to keep up with DDR for grades.

|2.2.07 @ 8:33PM|#

But on a serious note...

"So…it's "laughable" that schools install exercise equipment in their schools that kids might actually use and improve their health a little? This one seems to fall into the Reason "If the government does it, it must be bad" category.

Now, if an individual or non-government group had donated these game machines to the schools, Reason would run a story about how it was an example of the private sector addressing a health problem that the public schools have been unwilling or unable to tackle themselves."

Actually Dan T., the reason we laugh is that the "obesity epidemic" isn't really a problem. If people are happy being fat, then god speed them on their Rascals. If they want to get thin, neither the schools nor the government nor the government schools are the ones who need to solve the problem.

The kids need to decide to get off their asses and exercise.

Adam|2.2.07 @ 9:37PM|#

Also this week in West Virginia, 75,000 Medicaid recipients eligible for Weight Watchers.

Cutting to the chase:

It's not clear how much money the state might save from having healthier residents, but state Medicaid spokeswoman Shannon Riley says: "It's not about immediate cost containment. The Medicaid program will see savings down the line, but this is about slowing the growth of lifestyle-induced diseases and disabilities."

Ellie|2.3.07 @ 9:10AM|#

IMHO, once they make it mandatory, DDR will no longer be fun and kids won't want to do it.

This is true, and sad. It's actually become quite a teen/young adult weight loss movement for fat kids, especially over the summer months (particularly if you're so fat you find it hard to join in softball or swimming or the other usual summer activities.) But it's popular because it's hip and cool and you can be competitive with your friends. If Mommy and Daddy and the principal are making you play it, it'll quickly lose its appeal.