Hey folks,
If you have not yet seen the games on Kate's website, I highly recommend that you spend some time there, with curriculum thoughts in hand. Yes, Looney Labs games rock - but they only can meet certain needs - and this forum is about sharing ideas. So, in apology to Kate for not sharing the link to her site before when I was tossing out links and ideas earlier, I can say after only about 15 min of browsing their site that if I were still teaching, I'd want my bucket-o'-games to include some choice bits from Kadon.
www.gamepuzzles.comTheir motto: for the joy of thinking. How cool is that?? Especially if you happen to be building a curriculum for games playing....
Thanks!
Carol
- she who loves the "for the joy of thinking" motto....
On 4/3/07, Kate Jones <
kate@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Great subject. I'd just like to add that the Mensa-Select games, to be
reviewed, must also pay an entry fee of, last time I looked, $125 per title.
That leaves out some worthy products who cannot or will not pay for review,
such as our own.
In using games in class to teach - what? - critical thinking, sportsmanship,
strategy, systems organization, reasoning, goal management, rule creation
and team play, I would like to introduce one other radical consideration:
What values are being inculcated? If you have capturing or other kinds of
sabotage towards the other players, you are perpetuating a predatory social
ethic.
Fostering even subliminally that the other players are the "enemy"
proliferates, propagates and legitimizes an adversarial attitude toward
those who share this world with us. That kind of thinking leads to accepting
and even endorsing wars and conflict, conquest and expropriation.
Games that bring players together to collaborate towards resolving problems,
finding mutually beneficial resolutions, and overcoming hardships and
obstacles in the game environment rather than within each player, would be
the kind of educational experience that reinforces the positive values.
Competition where each player gains is great; competition that motivates to
put others down or to impede them rewards the wrong values.
That's my soapbox. Thanks for listening, and I hope it will add something to
your thinking when you choose games for your classes. By the way, I love
Looney games; they are truly enlightened.
The only other game I would like to see is where everyone wins. The
winners/losers paradigm needs to go.
-- Kate Jones
Kadon Enterprises, Inc.
www.gamepuzzles.com