Perhaps you have heard of "Dance Praise,"
a video game in the spirit of "Dance Dance Revolution," but with
Christian music and no negative vibes. That's right -- if you mess up a
step, the game won't snicker at you or boo. Do the worst version of the
Cabbage Patch in the history of mankind, and "Dance Praise" will still
love you.
Evidently
the game, created by Christian company Digital Praise, has sold well
enough to spawn a follow-up, "Dance Praise 2: The Remix." This video guide
-- featuring a lot of people who make the white man's overbite look
postively gangsta -- explains the whole concept, but doesn't address
one important question: What's wrong with a little light-hearted negative feedback?
I
understand why religious families dig on the Christian messages. If
that appeals to you, that's totally fine. But the notion that the game
should be celebrated because it won't damage a child's self-image, as a
press release recently sent to Strollerderby suggests, seems a little
goofy. Obviously we should not go up to our kids and say, "You know
something? You couldn't find you way to Funkytown with a GPS system and
a detailed roadmap." But I think we sometimes tiptoe too gingerly
around the whole notion of self-esteem.
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