What’s the point of a board game?
We think a lot about productivity – about time used effectively in moving towards goals. Since there’s almost no hope in 2020 of having a career that doesn’t come home with you, we’re all facing 24-7 self-assessments of our productivity.
A board game doesn’t seem to have a point. If I’m playing a 3-hour game of Risk with my family, for example, that’s three hours with no productivity on any of the 123 projects currently active.
And yet, the lack of productivity is the point.
Playing a board game prioritizes the people you’re playing with: it shows that you value spending time with those people. It also lets you focus on those nebulous brain connections that are strengthened in play, but not in work.
Why do we have choir during the school day? For much the same reasons.
Setting aside time for music amid a day of schoolwork lets our humans know that we value their whole selves. It allows students to let go of pervasive thoughts of job and career (unless they’re planning to pursue music) and strengthens different parts of their brains. It is a lifeline rescuing our students from nonstop productivity.
If you accept this premise, how do you structure your classes to be more like playing board games and less like other classwork?