Video games are for couch potatoes, right? Well, maybe not. According to the New York Times, they’re being used in schools to promote physical fitness (!).

It is a scene being repeated across the country as schools deploy the blood-pumping video game Dance Dance Revolution as the latest weapon in the nation’s battle against the epidemic of childhood obesity. While traditional video games are often criticized for contributing to the expanding waistlines of the nation’s children, at least several hundred schools in at least 10 states are now using Dance Dance Revolution, or D.D.R., as a regular part of their physical education curriculum.

One P.E. teacher describes D.D.R. as a “physical educator’s dream”–a phrase that I’m pretty sure I never thought I’d hear in relation to a video game. On a related note, I’ve got a piece up today on a proposal to regulate the video game ratings system.