Elizabeth just sent in this great link to teacher John Hunter’s TED talk on his amazing World Peace game.
As a teacher you’ll also get two great takeaways on:
1) What to teach
2) How to control a class
The thing is I can’t actually find anywhere where you can get the game, does anyone know?
But the movie trailer you can find below. (Or here if you’re on email)
For any teacher who has even a little freedom of what to teach, which is everyone who reads this blog, it just shows what you can do!
Ih Richard, here is a comment from John’s website
http://www.worldpeacethemovie.com/a-note-from-john-hunter/
Hello everyone,
Thank you all for your tremendous and kind support in response to the recent presentation at TED 2011. Following that talk in March, I returned to my job teaching 2nd – 5th graders at Agnor-Hurt School in Virginia. Although I have been very busy, I did want to respond to the queries about the World Peace Game.
Currently the game is not available online or anywhere else….yet! We are considering many models for sharing the game, and hope within a relatively short time to be able to offer access to this wonderful experience. If you will check the foundation site or Chris Farina’s film site about the game documentary occassionally, any new information should appear there. ….
…… Just a brief note; as many of you have understood, the game is not very realistic, nor is it meant to be. I created it during the end of the cold war era when there was the greater possibility of large tank armies battling! Things have changed greatly since then, and I have updated the game to include things like insurgencies, predator drones, cyber warfare, etc.
But in truth, the game is merely a pretext for inspiring children to create, develop and practice the tools and processes of problem-solving, and creative and critical thinking. By competent and insightful practice, I would hope that the children may ultimately be able to use these experiences to help reduce suffering and increase compassion in the world.
John Hunter
Wow is that not something to aspire to!!!!
Thank you so much.
Richard the thing is you have to MAKE the game. Hah
Barbara
Thank you Richard, I agree with Liza, but I read your interview, and I think your life is more interesting than the game and with your life style you are teaching us lots of things.Are you thinking about a house in Spain in the future?
Thank you for helping us to be better teachers.
Oh, this might be a great thing for my JH classes. I got some ideas how to apply it to language classes. Not world peace, but the way: “simulation” might work perfectly with kids who have some basics.
I’ll try it right this week.
Thanks.
Thank you so much for posting this!
I think many really great teachers have the qualities of great leaders. Confidence and a warm sincerety that draws people to you as well as humility – it’s amazing how many children, whether gifted, ‘average’ or those who may seem less able than others, often come out with gems of wisdom. I think children are often underestimated. Those in extremely poor conditions may not have the advantages of early years education but they still learn a lot from exploring their environment and learning from other family members and I think there is a great potential among children of all backgrounds. I’m very interested buying the game and there is more information on this website:
https://www.worldpeacegame.org/world-peacegame-foundation/about-the-game
I think it will be available quite soon but teachers are encouraged to develop their own versions. Perhaps simpler or more complex versions of the game could be created for different ages and abilities. The main difference between this and war games like Risk or Civilization is that there are two winners!
‘if you can touch their heart, then the mind contact lasts longer and goes deeper…’