Valerie Putman: Who Needs Rules?

As the last week of classes finished up, one of my colleagues had a bunch of us over for home brewed beer, good food, and good times.  My friends at work know that I’m a board gamer and, in fact, the host and his wife owned Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne.  As the grown ups became a bit boring for their 3 year old to hang out with, he pulled out Settlers and started rolling the dice and playing with the cards.  Later, I was asked if I wanted to see the “boat game” and was delighted to see he meant Serenissima!  We opened the board up and loaded it with boats (at least 3 or 4 in each space) and pushed them around the open seas (and even across land when he felt like it).

Of course I wasn’t going to try to teach him the real rules.  I’ve played board games with enough kids to know that it is often just as much fun to play with the bits like they are any other toy.  Perhaps next time I’ll bring some of my favorite Selecta games along and see if he’s interested in game rules that are more age appropriate.  If he’s not, the great wooden game pieces will be fun for him anyway.

Games and their rules do have a place in childhood development.  Life is full of rules and it’s useful to learn early on that you can follow the rules and still have fun.  On the other hand, when kids are going through their “cheat to make the game go on longer” or “cheat to win” phases, it might be easier to skip the rules all together.  When the games are just toys and you’re free to make up and change the rules as you go along, it’s impossible to cheat!

Now if only I could figure out a way to make it impossible for my students to cheat—next week is finals week.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

© 2008 Valerie Putman

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Comments:

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Good luck with finals… It never ceases to amaze me the energy some students will invest in an attempt to cheat. I have to think that actually studying and doing the work assigned the correct way *has* to be easier! We just finished finals and graduation here at Texas A&M (we started the spring semester a week early) - the between semester lull has appeared. People can get into restaurants easily, the streets are less crowded (shaving five minutes or more off of driving times) and everything is much less crowded. Of course, some of those absent students are parishioners at my parish, gamers and friends, so the sudden drop in population has its downside. Posted by David Reed on May 11, 2008 at 01:21 PM | #

I think you answered your own question, Valerie:  design a test that has so few rules, it’s impossible to cheat.  I suppose this would have to be more of an essay format, though, and that would mean quite a bit more work for you! Posted by Jeff Allers on May 12, 2008 at 11:08 AM | #

Calvinball comes to mind as the perfect game for children (adults, too). Lots of fun, and if you aren’t having fun, change the rules so you do. Posted by John Daniels on May 13, 2008 at 04:31 AM | #

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