{"id":757,"date":"2020-01-11T08:03:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T14:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/?p=757"},"modified":"2023-04-29T19:42:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T00:42:50","slug":"school-is-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2020\/01\/11\/school-is-a-game\/","title":{"rendered":"School Is a Game: Finite and Infinite Games in Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a website about education, particularly pertaining to thinking about education differently. Jason, Kolby and I really enjoy discussing educational philosophy, and hopefully you, our readers, enjoy and benefit from our peculiar take on education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being educational philosophers, we are also teachers \u2013 educational practitioners. What we talk about in our weekly posts we are also trying to live out in the classroom every day. Even though we write from a place of deep thought about educational ideals, sometimes the reality of the daily classroom means we get to workshop how those ideals play out with the students God has given into our care. And believe me, there are days that are less than ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s perhaps satisfying for some of our readers to know that sometimes our students struggle to understand why we even have to learn Latin. Sometimes our students don\u2019t wear the correct uniform shirts. Sometimes the lesson we planned that was going to help apply some deep work flow<\/a> for our students just falls flat. We have to live in grace, knowing that our educational renaissance is carried out by very human beings for very human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all preface to the concept I want to play with in this article: school as a place for play. The week before I wrote this in December was final exam week in the upper school. This means there are pockets of time during which students don\u2019t have a class, they don\u2019t have an exam, and the motivation to study for another exam has been depleted. And so they pull out a game to rejuvenate together for a spell. For one such game, the students requested I join them, and my own motivation<\/a> to grade my exams was just about as low as their motivation to continue studying. Therefore, we played a game together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game Play in School<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s very important for games to be played in school. I have played many rounds of four square in my day with my students. My shoulder is permanently sore from epic dodgeball games with middle schoolers. I can\u2019t count the number of dress shoes I\u2019ve gone through playing soccer with the kids. There are any number of card and board games that enrich and enliven the classroom, especially on rainy and cold days. Games teach innumerable lessons, and what is school but an environment for lessons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monopoly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The game of choice during exam week was Monopoly Deal<\/em>. I had never played this before, but apparently it was a favorite of the students. It\u2019s a card-based variation on the Monopoly<\/em> board game we all grew up on. However, whereas the Monopoly<\/em> board is rigidly bound by the property squares and has the inevitability of one expected outcome (whoever buys the earliest color group is most likely to win), the card game ebbs and flows as different players create new positions, altering strategic advantages constantly. After one round face up, I figured I had the hang of it. Interestingly, the game itself soon faded into the background of my consciousness as I observed the individuals playing the game. I was fascinated by new insights into the personalities of individual students and the group dynamics that emerged as alliances were made and broken. Who played fair? Who knew the rules best? Who was suspected of peeking at others\u2019 cards? Why gang up on one student when a different student clearly had a stronger position? Something more than game play was going on here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just so happened that my humanities class recently focused on the concepts of finite and infinite games, as written about by James Carse in his book Finite and Infinite Games<\/em>. Two voices that raised my awareness of these concepts are leadership guru Simon Sinek<\/a> and Seth Godin, both of whom have talks that are easily searched on YouTube. In our discussion, we noted how finite games are dependent on some kind of limited resource, and the winner is the one who accumulates the most of that limited resource. It means there are clearly defined winners and losers. There are established boundaries and a clear set of rules that dictate the course of play. Infinite games are far different. They can go on indefinitely because the purpose of the game is not about winning a limited resource, but merely to keep on playing. The rules can change, the boundaries can change, the players can change. We explored how life is comprised of both finite and infinite games, largely embedded within each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explicate this, Monopoly Deal<\/em> is a finite game. There is a clear ending dictated in the rules. Once a player has completed three property color groups, that player has won. Game over. A limited resource, established boundaries and a clear set of rules make this a finite game. Monopoly Deal<\/em>, however, is embedded within an infinite game called, \u201cLet\u2019s play together.\u201d Students play together not because there are limited resources, established boundaries and a clear set of rules dictating that students shall play in exactly certain ways, under certain conditions and according to certain norms. Students play games because it is in our human nature to play. There isn\u2019t a winner for the game \u201cLet\u2019s play together.\u201d The game exists in order to continue being played. You might be the winner of Monopoly Deal<\/em> this time, and I might be the winner of Monopoly Deal<\/em> next time. But who\u2019s keeping track? That\u2019s not the goal of the infinite game. The goal is just to play together. The dichotomy between the finite and infinite games struck me as I simultaneously played the finite game with my students but observed them on the infinite game level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ludus: Is It a School or Is It a Game?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Latin word ludus<\/em> is peculiar. It simultaneously means two seemingly different things. The term ludus<\/em> in one sense means \u201cplay, game, or sport.\u201d It\u2019s fun to think about ancient Roman children playing athletic games, like running races, as well as board games. We have artifacts of games that were the forerunners of chess, checkers and backgammon (ludus latrunculi, calculus<\/em> and tabula<\/em>). Such artifacts help us to clearly picture what this word ludus<\/em> means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"old<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The other sense of ludus<\/em> is \u201cschool,\u201d predominantly primary school. The Romans had designated buildings for ludi<\/em>, with headmasters, desks, writing tablets, etc. The school day started early and ended after children had been exercised in reading, writing, and arithmetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roman world is one we can readily recognize because it contains so many of the trappings of our day. How many students moaned to go to school (ludum<\/em>) because it meant they couldn\u2019t play games (ludos<\/em>)? What a peculiar word, then, to describe these two seemingly dichotomous things? Unless, of course, the word itself reveals that \u201cschool\u201d and \u201cgame\u201d are not after all dichotomous. If school is actually a place to play, and play is a place of learning, maybe the word ludus<\/em> reveals something we are prone to miss about the reality of education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life Is a Game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It shouldn\u2019t surprise us that school is a game. Life, after all, is a game, or at the very least has game-like qualities to it. There are limited resources, boundaries and rules in all kinds of areas of life. Getting into a college, finding a job, and landing a promotion are games we play. Many of the games we play are set up with winners and losers. He got the job, and I didn\u2019t \u2013 winner and loser. She got the promotion, and I didn\u2019t \u2013 winner and loser. We even make games out of trivial matters. How often have you been in a conversation where the goal is to share a more extreme experience than your friend? Who got less sleep last night? Who had the worst commute? Ironically, we often become the winner by accomplishing better than our opponent a losing strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when we apply the concept of the infinite game, we can see that these little finite games are nested within a larger infinite game. Too often we get so caught up in the finite games we play that we lose sight of the infinite game. The infinite game considers such concepts as my long-term happiness<\/a>, living a meaningful life, and being driven by purposeful relationships and events. The infinite game makes the finite games irrelevant. I might not have gotten that promotion, by my infinite game wasn\u2019t dependent on that promotion. For many, the competition to get the promotion fits into only a narrowly defined finite game. But what if the promotion is not aligned with, or is even contradictory to one\u2019s long-term, infinite game strategy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking in terms of finite and infinite games has been a rather essential aspect of my college guidance strategy<\/a>. The approach most students take regarding colleges is to play the finite game. What is the best college with the top-ranked degree program in the field of my choice? Can I boost my GPA and my college entrance exams just a little bit more to not only get into college, but to land the highest merit-based scholarship? Now it is not that these games aren\u2019t worth playing. Those limited resources are out there and some students thrive on the competition that comes with finite games. Yet most students aren\u2019t best served by playing the finite game. There\u2019s an infinite game that can be played instead that flips the college-choice question on its head. It begins by having the student work through their own vision for their lives. What kind of skills, passion, calling or agenda do they sense for their lives? When students start to envision a meaningful and purposeful future, they can start to see that college exists to enable the student to fulfill that vision. You can hear the infinite game being played now. When I play the finite game, the college sets the agenda and the student has to fit the criteria of the college. When I play the infinite game, the student sets the agenda and the college now has to fit the criteria of the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be clear, this means we\u2019re playing a different game than most college-bound students are playing. The finite game player might say that you just lost the game by not going to the highly-selective school or not going for the top scholarship. But the infinite game player can swat that gadfly away by saying she\u2019s playing a completely different game, a long-term strategy that has more to do with crafting a meaningful life rather than getting a notch on the belt. Obviously we aren\u2019t dealing with diametric categories. You can go after the elite college and the top scholarship as part of a long-term strategy. Perhaps that\u2019s part of how an individual plans to shape his or her meaningful and purposeful life. Great! It\u2019s just that most who play the finite game miss the larger picture and blindly pursue a gambit without thinking through the long-term priorities of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Become a Game Master, You Must Master the Rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I think understanding school as a\ngame can be helpful in many respects. We can see how school is supposed to have\na playful aspect to it. There should be a deep and abiding joy as teachers and\nstudents make discoveries together. Learning is fun. We don\u2019t need to hype it\nup by superimposing games on the classroom. Instead, we can see how game play\nis part of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School rules<\/a> are often handed down (or at the very least received by students) in a less than joyful way. One way to help students reconsider the rules is to see how all games have rules. The rules establish order and justice. Our post-game discussions of sports more often than not come down to the rules. We complain when a ref misses a call. We cry foul at a perceived bending of the rules, placing our local team at an unfair disadvantage (rarely does this feeling get applied to the opponent\u2019s perceived unfair disadvantage). A school has to have rules as well. Fair, balanced, equitable game play is the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I write my eBook on habit training<\/a>, it strikes me that schools are playing an essential role in the infinite game of students\u2019 lives. The fundamental goal of habit training<\/a> is not to create automatons, but to enable the student to live a pleasant and easy life. The more a student gains a sense that they are creating for themselves a meaningful life, the more purpose any and all of the rules of the game take on. Moreover, the teacher is not merely there to enforce the rules. Instead, the rules (or a more worthy concept \u2013 the habits) are there to promote life skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we enter a new calendar year, I\nhope this reflection on school as a game renews your commitment to playing the\ninfinite game with your students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Egan","author_link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"This is a website about education, particularly pertaining to thinking about education differently. Jason, Kolby and I really enjoy discussing educational philosophy, and hopefully you, our readers, enjoy and benefit from our peculiar take on education. In addition to being educational philosophers, we are also teachers \u2013 educational practitioners. What we talk about in our…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa7K1D-cd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2019\/08\/03\/back-to-school-and-back-to-educational-renaissance\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":0},"title":"Back to School and Back to Educational Renaissance","author":"Patrick Egan","date":"August 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome back to a new school year and to a new year of Educational Renaissance! The back-to-school sale shelves are probably already picked over and disheveled, but Jason, Kolby and I are planning a whole series of great posts that will last you the whole school year. Look for our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Updates"","block_context":{"text":"Updates","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"classroom waiting for students to return","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/classroom.jpg?fit=1200%2C858&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/classroom.jpg?fit=1200%2C858&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/classroom.jpg?fit=1200%2C858&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/classroom.jpg?fit=1200%2C858&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/classroom.jpg?fit=1200%2C858&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":819,"url":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2019\/12\/28\/20-of-the-most-memorable-maxims-from-2019-educational-renaissance\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":1},"title":"20 of the Most Memorable Maxims from 2019 Educational Renaissance","author":"Jason Barney","date":"December 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The end of the year is a good time to take stock and review how far we've come. These last few days I've been doing this, both for myself through rereading my bullet journals, but also for Educational Renaissance by rereading all the old articles of 2019 in search of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Updates"","block_context":{"text":"Updates","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"journal on the table for reviewing the year","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Canva-Journal-on-the-Table.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Canva-Journal-on-the-Table.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Canva-Journal-on-the-Table.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Canva-Journal-on-the-Table.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Canva-Journal-on-the-Table.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2115,"url":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2021\/06\/12\/after-the-black-death-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":2},"title":"After the Black Death . . . What?","author":"Patrick Egan","date":"June 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a little over a year ago that I wrote \"The Black Death and an Educational Renaissance\" about how the Black Death serves as an analogue to the Coronavirus. 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We begin with the Society for Classical Learning conference with the theme Recovering Beauty in Education June 15-18. This is quickly followed by the ACCS Repairing the Ruins conference June 22-25. Both conferences\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Updates"","block_context":{"text":"Updates","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-10.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1780,"url":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2020\/12\/26\/three-people-you-should-listen-to-in-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":4},"title":"Three People You Should Listen to in 2021","author":"Patrick Egan","date":"December 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"As 2020 wraps up there is much to be grateful for in the midst of one of the most difficult years we've experienced as a society. Today is Boxing Day, which is a great day for gift giving, reflection on the year past and perspective on the year ahead. (When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/microphone-in-the-recording-studio-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/microphone-in-the-recording-studio-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/microphone-in-the-recording-studio-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/microphone-in-the-recording-studio-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/microphone-in-the-recording-studio-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1439,"url":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2020\/07\/25\/20-quotable-quotes-from-the-first-half-of-2020-educational-renaissance\/","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":5},"title":"20 Quotable Quotes from the First Half of 2020 Educational Renaissance","author":"Jason Barney","date":"July 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of 2019 we shared a series of memorable maxims from that year's blog articles. As we transition toward the next half of 2020, we thought we'd do something similar and share 20 Quotable Quotes from Educational Renaissance articles January through June. These are longer block quotes that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Updates"","block_context":{"text":"Updates","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Plato and Aristotle and Socrates","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Canva-Nativity-Painting-of-People-Inside-a-Dome-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C764&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Canva-Nativity-Painting-of-People-Inside-a-Dome-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C764&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Canva-Nativity-Painting-of-People-Inside-a-Dome-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C764&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Canva-Nativity-Painting-of-People-Inside-a-Dome-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C764&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Canva-Nativity-Painting-of-People-Inside-a-Dome-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C764&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005,"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions\/1005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}