The Haystack

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The Haystack

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The Haystack

South Park Game Adopted as Educational Tool for Elementary Students

By Michael Yeatts

A recently released game based on the popular animated television series South Park called South Park: The Stick of Truth has recently been implemented as a means for primary educators across the country to teach children various concepts such as tolerance, manners and respect.

This comes as no surprise to most because, upon the show’s first appearance on PBS Kids, South Park has been known for its prudency and purity along with the enriching morals and values that it encourages. South Park creators and voice actors of South Park Matt Stone and Trey Parker set out to make a game that made its players feel like they were inside the show. Many primary educators saw this as a paramount opportunity to steer the ultra-impressionable minds of younglings across the country in the right direction.

“I think the game provides scenarios that many young children can identify with,” said cosmetologist and people person Felix Pearson. “When one looks past the fart jokes, extreme violence and nudity and insensitivity to literally everything, it’s really just the story of four fourth-graders livin’ life.”

The game is currently being played in classes K-6, and the positive results to the gaming sessions have been immediate. Teachers are reporting expanded vocabularies and higher levels of physical activity among students. One kindergarten teacher reported that a student who had formerly been very quiet before playing the game “stood up and said, ‘Suck my balls,’ to another student, then he promptly threw his feces at said student.” Marvelous results like these are not isolated. All over the country teachers are boasting more engaged and social students.

Professor of Developmental Psychology and major proponent of South Park: The Stick of Truth Daniel Mathers says, “In many ways, the game’s situations teach young children the many lessons our society emphasizes. A complete lack of inhibition for mocking all genders, classes, beliefs, ethnicities, cultures and races teaches children egalitarianism. The heavy use of scatological and sexual humor teaches children comfort in their body. Children get a broader understanding of retrospective humanity with the appearance of important historical groups such as Khans and Nazis. Even the use of aliens, gnomes, animate pieces of excrement and other mythical beings stimulate a youth’s imagination.”

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The overwhelming success of the game in education has prompted Stone and Parker to create a game that is a bit more appropriate for children from grades 7-12. The name of this teen-based sequel has been released as South Park: The Stick of Truth, If You Know What I Mean.

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