It’s just like standing on the ground, except you’re on wheels.

Skateboarding as a school activity has been done before I think. The article at deseretnews.com is pretty standard, with the exception that the program was instigated by 60 year old man who had just learned to skate from a former student who now owns the company Skate Pass LLC. I’m not sure how much actual skating the teacher is doing, so we’ll take that with a grain of salt. The succinct title of this post is a quote from a 5th grade girl in the program.

Skate Pass LLC exits to sell the Skate Pass Curriculum Package to schools. There was a long-winded article (Warning PDF link) in Concrete Wave about the Skate Pass program. The Curriculum Package sells boards and safety gear for 20 kids at about the same price a school could expect to pay online anywhere. The only value added part I can see is in the lesson plan, instructional DVD and maybe the special boards. Special boards? The special wheels formulated for gym floors and wide enough to extend past the axles… more accurately, these were probably existing formulas and molds assembled on a stock board. Oh wait, there are extra soft bushings for novice skaters and colored bolts in the front trucks. Nothing out of the ordinary, just assembled al at once for a better than average quality beginner board a la Birdhouse.

The safety equipment package includes helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards. Helmets for flatland skating in a controlled environment? I’m guessing that’s good for insurance purposes. Elbow and knee pads? They probably don’t want parents complaining about all the inevitable skinned knees and elbows, but wrist guards? That seems excessive, especially considering kids that weight really don’t need them, and there are many Doctors who will tell you that you are more likely to break an arm while wearing wrist guards because it transfers the trauma stress right to the point where the wrist guard ends. Oh well. We live in a litigious society.

Anyone have a copy of this instructional DVD? I’d like to see/know if it’s any good.