Sandra Dodd

I'm quoting an article; I'll cite and link it later.

=======================================================================

Platform games might as well have been programmed by music teachers -
the structure is a wish list of practice techniques.

1) Students are forced to repeat particular sections until they get
them right. If the student forgets to jump over the sleeping turtle,
and treads on it instead, they get sent back to the start of the
section.

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"Students" (he's referring to the players of video games as
"students") are *NOT* "forced" to repeat any sections of any games.
Some of the choose to do that. Some choose to find a different game,
or to set the remote control down and go ride bikes. Some would LOVE
to choose to repeat particular sections, but their parents or music
teachers won't let them.

To call them "students" and use the term "force" shows an extremely
different view than I've read about here and in other unschooling
discussions for years.



The quote is from a generally lame article called "Nintendo Practice"
that suggests that music teachers pretend their music is a fun video
game. I play piano; I've played other instruments in formal
situations, and this article did not impress me. But if I were to
believe that forcing kids to practice music was a desirable goal, it
might give me hope.

I'm not recommending the article or the eventually-named product (a
book for music teachers, I think), but I did want to make the point
that although he's praising gamers, he's missing a very large point.
They aren't "forced."

http://www.practicespot.com/article.phtml?id=117&pid=1



Sandra






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

jenstarc4

>
> 1) Students are forced to repeat particular sections until they get
> them right. If the student forgets to jump over the sleeping turtle,
> and treads on it instead, they get sent back to the start of the
> section.
>

Some choose to find a different game,
> or to set the remote control down and go ride bikes. Some would
LOVE
> to choose to repeat particular sections, but their parents or music
> teachers won't let them.
>

I've always disliked those kind of games and generally avoid them, or
have someone else in my family do that particular part of the game for
me if I know it will get me where I want to be. My older daughter and
my husband are both great at going back and starting over, my younger
daughter and I both really dislike it and prefer not playing at all
than going back over and over.

In fact, when I was playing music a lot and came to a part that I
routinely messed up, I wouldn't ever go back to the beginning to play
it all again, until I had that part right first. I found that going
back tended to make me get sloppy with the beginning all the way up
until the part the I needed to work on. It was only after I had
sufficiently mastered the part that needed the work, that I was able to
play the piece well.

Going to the beginning may work for some, but certainly not all. So
again it's like school, trying to force one way on all the kids and
tell them that it's the way to go and if someone isn't getting it, it
must be the fault of the child, certainly not the system itself,
because all kids like video games right?