Please watch this enlightening talk from TED.

John Hunter on the World Peace Game

Quote:Why you should listen to him:

Musician, teacher, filmmaker and game designer, John Hunter has dedicated his life to helping children realize their full potential. His own life story is one of a never-ending quest for harmony. As a student, he studied comparative religions and philosophy while traveling through Japan, China and India. In India, inspired by Ghandi's philosophy, he began to think about the role of the schoolteacher in creating a more peaceful world.

As his online biography says: "Accepting the reality of violence, he would seek to incorporate ways to explore harmony in various situations. This exploration would take form in the framework of a game – something that students would enjoy. Within the game data space, they would be challenged, while enhancing collaborative and communication skills."

In 1978, at the Richmond Community High School, Hunter led the first sessions of his World Peace Game, a hands-on political simulation. The game has now been played around the world, on a four-tiered board. It's the subject of the new film World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements.

Read John Hunter's note to the community following the publication of his TEDTalk >>

"The World Peace Game is about learning to live and work comfortably in the unknown."

John Hunter

They even made a documentary about the game: World Peace... and other 4th-grade achievements. You can see an 8 minute trailer here.

I think THIS is what education should be about, not about training children and young people to become good work force or teaching them lots of things they'll end up forgetting anyway.

What do you think?

I think it's a good exercise, but it's definitely been done before. I went to a small private school and we did a similar simulation in middle school.

It's unfeasible because public schools are filled with uninquisitive, disinterested kids, not because their programs are bad. Good students will excel in this type of activity or in a classroom setting. Also, money.

i wish that documentary was on dvd, i'd really like to see it!!! It'd be interesting to know in more detail what the kids come up with and stuff...

i dunno, i think education should be a lot of things, but this kind of thing should definately be part of that!!! i hope some of those kids do take what they learned into positions of power...

@Zachandhobbes: i totally disagree. Children are generally naturally inquisitive, especially when they're as young as the 4th graders in the world peace game. It's a teachers job to capture their interest and imagination, and if the teacher can't, usually it's a poor teacher.

Why would you think that kids in comprehensives are uninquisitive & uninterested but it's not the fault of the program...? I don't get that at all. Are private school students somehow born different to the rest of us?

i went to a comprehensive all the way through, and i wasn't an uninquisitive, unthoughtful child either. I was bored by the time i got to high school though, a lot of the time.

Maybe I'm just jaded because I transitioned from one of those small private schools to a huge public school for high school, but kids here seem more interested in sex and drugs than school most of the time. And the kids who are 'interested' in school are just in it so they can get good grades to get to college, not for any actual self-motivation to learn.

... yeah, i do remember that exact same feeling too. ugh, high school really does suck. i really hated that nobody was interested at all in the subjects themselves. that's why i left at 16...

i dunno, i think at least part of it is being in a big school though too (as well as just, teenagers). The smaller the school, the more personal attention you get from teachers. At high school i felt like they barely knew my name, didn't know anything about me or care what might motivate their students, and were just going through the motions marking people. And loads of them demanded respect without giving any. It sucked.

Things do get better again though, later...