Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Board Games that teach consensus/cooperation

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

This isn't exactly a game but it is something that could be used in  
communities as a community challenge.

My granddaughter's school follows the International Baccalaureate  
program, which is very heavily values based. The values on cards up  
around the room and students are reminded of them regularly and their  
behavior related to a value. (I wish I had the list but I've gone  
blank on it.)

Children the only reason for going to time-out is being uncaring. The  
spelling lists are divided into to categories, regular and "take a  
risk" containing harder words. Risk-taking is stressed as a positive  
value in many ways -- unlike any school I ever attended!!!

The children are rewarded in class for demonstrations of values and  
receive a "principled" ticket. If two children cooperate when choosing  
who gets to read a book first, they receive tickets. The tickets are  
placed in a bowl in the class room. When the bowl is full, they take  
it to the principal's office where they dump it into a "really big  
bowl," as one says. When that bowl is full, the whole school has a fun  
day.

I was so impressed that they not only stress values individually but  
collectively. The school is also Chinese immersion so I suspect that  
some of this is the influence of the Chinese teachers who are all  
native Chinese-speakers.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org