Day 82 - Friday's Eve

Today is the 5th day of the 12th week, the 23rd day of the 3rd month, the 82nd day of this insane blogging experiment in garrulousness, and:

• Atheist Day
• Cuddly Kitten Day
• National Chia Day
• National Chip and Dip Day
• National Melba Toast Day
• National Puppy Day
• National Tamale Day
• Navratri -  ((which means "Nine Nights" in Sanskrit)), an annual Hindu festival of the goddess Amibika and Durga.  It is observed for nine days, first in the month of Chaitra and then in the month of Sharada.  Depending on the region, some celebrate by fasting and prayer, other by feasting and dancing.    
• Near Miss Day
• OK Day
• Ravenclaw Day
• World Maths Day
• World Meteorological Day
• World Optometry Day

Quote of the day:

"One does not play Bach without having done scales. But neither does one play a scale merely for the sake of the scale."

~ Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

How many kids are gamers?  Of course, a lot depends on how you define the term!  Certainly I wouldn't classify myself as a gamer, and yet I spend hours each week in world or playing a game on the PC.  I even play Diablo III, which as a MMO and because I have actually scheduled time to be in game or made appointments to attend events in Second Life or Sovaria.  

According to CNET, 91% of kids are "gamers" and that doesn't include those who play so-called casual games.  FinancesOnline breaks it down to 23% of all gamers in the US between the ages of 10 - 20 [with the vast preponderance of gamers being male], so we can assume there are lots of school age kids playing games.  And of all those kids, I will bet a dollar to a donut that their parents are having a hard time getting them to DO homework, much less do it well.  

Not that I truly understand how the kids feel like they can just refuse to complete those assignments - it simply never occurred to me that resistance to forced labor after school hours [which is how my son viewed it] was optional, that I could opt out.  Of course, those who do opt out have to accept the consequences of doing so, and seldom realize the impact it will have on their future, but my son proved to me that neither parents nor teachers can force someone to complete their homework.  Or practice an instrument if it comes right down to it.  

It occurred to me as I read the quote of the day, that all gamers understand the concept of farming or grinding for items/equipment or experience [AKA leveling up] in a game to make future gameplay easier.  Usually it involves very repetitive tasks - just like practice or homework assignments entail.  I wonder if we started talking about the need for grinding and spoke of it in this context, if it would be easier to justify to recalcitrant students the need for it.  Would that alter their perception that it is simply a superfluous daily grind and change the how they react?