OPINION - Editorial

Different kind of magic

Helping students and raising grades

With all the bad news coming from the education beat these days, it's a welcome sight to see some educators making magic in the classroom.

It's one thing for a teacher to assign The Hobbit for a reading assignment. How about taking a step further and giving students their own spells and swords?

Kids can be an imaginative bunch, and instead of shutting down that creativity, some teachers are harnessing that energy with a little game you may have heard of called Dungeons and Dragons. It's been around since 1974 and has recently seen a resurgence in popularity.

If you've ever seen it played, it looks more complicated than it is. Players decide what their characters do in the quest--fighting goblins or trying to pick the lock on a treasure chest--then roll the dice. If they get the right number, they're rewarded with success.

WNYC reported on a New Jersey teacher who had been toying with the idea of using games to teach her students for a while. Then she found Dungeons and Dragons. Instead of just assigning students to read Beowulf (which they might skim, if she's lucky), the teacher could have them play through the story. They get excited, form a new relationship with the literature, and remember more of the lessons.

Getting kids excited about the material they need to learn? What a concept. And it's a concept the best teachers employ. From pre-K teachers hatching real live birds in their classrooms to 12th grade English teachers reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English.

The New Jersey teacher said there's another benefit to D&D: Kids get a chance to grapple with complicated questions about their own lives and identity. They can become the hero they imagine themselves being when they daydream. How about daydreaming about classwork?

If teachers can harness a game's creativity and interest in the classroom, more power to them. Let students pick up their bows and magic books and take part in a creative joy that, at the very least, gives them a chance to escape multiplication tables and Jane Austen.

Editorial on 01/31/2019

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