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In 1978, John Hunter introduced a complex, immersive, interactive, collaborative, geopolitical game to his elementary school students. In 2011, he gained a global following when he delivered a TED talk about his 30-year experience of "Teaching with the World Peace Game." The talk was shared far and wide as millions were moved by his example of hands-on teaching. And millions began thinking about how to bring out the best in every child through an aspiration for something greater than even the most powerful on earth have yet to achieve -- peace.
When I met John Hunter and experienced his humility, warmth and thoughtfulness, I caught a glimpse behind the effectiveness and sincerity driving his work. A film about Hunter's experience with the game has been touring festivals and PBS stations, and he's just published a book, World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, to dissect the lessons of the World Peace Game and share the journey leading to this important exercise in 21st century learning that began way ahead of its time.
Hunter grew up in the segregated South, instilled with a foundation in nonviolent social change. While in and out of college, he sought an enlightened path, learning from spiritual seekers and leaders in India, Japan and China. His reflections on the philosophy of Gandhi, Sun Tzu and other Eastern thinkers led to more questions, such as: What is his true community? What does it mean to be at home in the world? How can we create peace? This journey also led him back to southern Virginia to be a schoolteacher.
Many of his questions had no clear answers. Their inconclusiveness helped shape Hunter's long career and his motto for his elementary school classes: "Learning to live and work comfortably, naturally, in the unknown." Hunter's approach -- and perhaps his appeal -- flies in the face of standardized testing, where there always is a right answer contained in a little bubble for students to fill in.
The World Peace Game has two primary goals:
When the game begins, students enter the classroom to find a four-level Plexiglass tower arrayed with little plastic factories, cities, soldiers and tanks. On the ground and sea level they see the trappings of peace and war, leaders and citizens, oceans and deserts, poverty and wealth. At the top there is an air level, and at the second level are four fictitious nations. One is wealthy, one is oil-rich, one is poor, and the fourth is philosophically mandated to preserve the planet.
Every child has a role, such as Prime Minister of a nation, cabinet member, President of the World Bank, arms dealer, Secretary General of the United Nations, saboteur and weather god/goddess (who also controls the stock market). Each role receives a top-secret dossier with 20-30 pages of vital information describing the 50 interlocking crises that are to be resolved, and the budget and other financial information used for crucial calculations. Throughout the book, Hunter shares stories of how diverse children's personalities played out their roles -- some naturally and some painfully, but always taking away deeper lessons.
Hunter concludes that the ultimate point of education (which is composed of knowledge, creativity and wisdom) is "simply to express compassion in the world," a lesson that real world leaders still haven't mastered. This drives Hunter's vision for his students well beyond achieving competence in a topic for an annual assessment. As one reads the book, his sense of profound respect for his students comes through; he honors their collective wisdom over his own authority, training them for something urgently needed, which has never been done before -- the achievement of world peace.
This is no easy task, and as his students have immersed in the Game, Hunter has seen them pass through the Seven Stages of Learning:
As I imagined these Seven Stages of Learning playing out, I remembered the seven stages of spiritual discovery taught by eastern mystics in Attar's The Conference of the Birds and Baha'u'llah's The Seven Valleys, or, closely connected, the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. In each of these approaches, clarity of mind, creativity, profound searching, deep connection and awakening to a broader knowledge that transcends our limitations come together to elevate the state of the individual, achieving a profound unity with humanity and, ultimately, a better world. This may be a lot to ask of a teacher who wishes to start a thoughtful project-based learning exercise, but even a loose connection between these ideals elevates purpose and honors the nobility of the profession, the learning process, and all those who will encourage its implementation.
Just as world peace is fraught with complexity, the World Peace Game has its challenges. For example, as access and speed of information has expanded, so has impatience for not knowing. Today's students, accustomed to instant answers, are increasingly uncomfortable with the Game's lack of immediacy. Also, there's no turnkey World Peace Game that anyone can order. Hunter offers Master Classes to those who can physically attend, but setting up one's own game isn't so simple -- yet.
Despite caveats, I gained important take-aways from the book, including:
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