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Class title: Critical Thinking & Reasoning: Chess, Monopoly, Tetris
It could be an elective class for Math & Business majors.
I had a teacher who had us play cards and toss coins as a part of a statistics and probabilities class in Jr high. It was a pretty good way to interest the students and most of us did pretty well with the concepts.
My kids' schools offered a very popular and active after school chess club, part of the USCF scholastic tournaments. While I don't support it as a class in and of itself, I do think it would be worthwhile for teachers to work in an introduction to chess at the elementary school level. IMO learning chess basics (ungraded?) would be at least as beneficial as having music classes.
Add Monopoly for money management and Craps for Probability and run with it.
Now, what classes do you drop?
Actually I've seen a version of Monopoly where the rules are tweaked to be more realistic that very much helps illustrate basic economic principles in a way that kids can understand. It makes concepts more "real" to them because they can see it playing out before them.
Seriously, gaming is used to test major processes and decisions by government and industry.
Which is something to be encouraged. Something that's fun for the kids, is a nice social group, and teaches kids to think.
However, there isn't enough time in school to teach the things REALLY should be learning now. Dividing up classroom time to teach games is ridiculous.
Mostly kids just get drilled on what they need to do well on standardized tests so they can grow up and be good cogs in the machine. Playing games like chess some of the time would be an improvement! We don't spend enough time teaching kids to think independently.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tnff
Actually I've seen a version of Monopoly where the rules are tweaked to be more realistic that very much helps illustrate basic economic principles in a way that kids can understand. It makes concepts more "real" to them because they can see it playing out before them.
Seriously, gaming is used to test major processes and decisions by government and industry.
Monopoly was originally invented as a teaching tool to illustrate the winner-takes-all nature of Capitalism.
Another (more modern) example, the game Andean Abyss was developed from a CIA teaching aid about counter-insurgency (it's a game where the players make decisions for various government and rebel factions in 1990s Columbia).
In a better world yes. An issue with chess tho........invariably people and kids who are very good at chess have high IQs. IOW very quickly smarter kids would either take to the game or not out of interest. Below average kids, even those with high interest, would not take to the game because they simply could not compete with kids from the other side.
Chess is a masterclass in competitive game theory, abstract logic, probability management, direct IQ bits like, "looks, see, understand, formulate a set of responses while considering the risks of each, make a move etc." all under some level of stress and time pressure.
The yield is 60-70% of Americans simply cannot become, "good" at chess and among the balance rank is defined by IQ and interest more than every other factor combined.
In an era of equality over merit chess doesn't fit.
Monopoly was originally invented as a teaching tool to illustrate the winner-takes-all nature of Capitalism.
That's revisionist nonsense.......capitalism creates more winners than any other system the world has attempted.
Anyway the game derives from two main logic points wealth creation under a system with some rules works better than an economy ruled by a few monopolists.........with a twists of taxation and competitive game theory.
You have to study to play well. It's a discipline. There are tons of books on opening theory, middle game theory and endgame theory. You have to know things like the Philidor position vs the Lucena position.
Actually I've seen a version of Monopoly where the rules are tweaked to be more realistic that very much helps illustrate basic economic principles in a way that kids can understand. It makes concepts more "real" to them because they can see it playing out before them.
Seriously, gaming is used to test major processes and decisions by government and industry.
I used a version of Monopoly (can't remember what it was called) that dealt with finances in early adulthood. I had to stop using it when a Vice Principal did a drive by observation and couldn't understand the game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EDS_
In a better world yes. An issue with chess tho........invariably people and kids who are very good at chess have high IQs. IOW very quickly smarter kids would either take to the game or not out of interest. Below average kids, even those with high interest, would not take to the game because they simply could not compete with kids from the other side.
Chess is a masterclass in competitive game theory, abstract logic, probability management, direct IQ bits like, "looks, see, understand, formulate a set of responses while considering the risks of each, make a move etc." all under some level of stress and time pressure.
The yield is 60-70% of Americans simply cannot become, "good" at chess and among the balance rank is defined by IQ and interest more than every other factor combined.
In an era of equality over merit chess doesn't fit.
This is always, always, forgotten. That there is a large subset of kids who can't add 2+2 and get the same answer three times in a row, not to mention not understanding the strategy and foreseeing of consequences utilizing multiple variables you find in chess. Many of those kids can't remember what they did yesterday.
Sure, chess would be valuable. But as others have pointed out upthread, what class are you going to drop in order to teach it?
Or, if not drop an entire class, what class do you plan chess instruction to occur in and what happens to other units that class is already responsible for if you need to block off instructional time to teach chess (if you want it taught by the math teacher, for example?)
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Class title: Critical Thinking & Reasoning: Chess, Monopoly, Tetris 
