John Hunter, a fourth grade gifted teacher, invented a world peace game that is designed to challenge the cognitive abilities of children. The game began as a 4x4 piece of wood; however, now the game has transformed into a four layered board piece. In the game, the students name four fictional countries and are assigned positions for each country. There are fifty interlocking problems that the students must work through and try to increase their countries beginning value in order to win the game. All of the problems are based on Africa.
I believe the idea of this game is wonderful to challenge students. First of all, it will really help students develop better critical thinking skills that will help them later in their education. Also, it really opens the eyes of the students to worldly problems. This game could ultimately help the students be more aware of trying to help fix worldly issues. However, there are also additional problems associated with the game. Elementary education is so focused now on test scores that teachers will have issues getting the game approved to use in their classrooms. Principals might view the game as distracting to the students and not preparing them for their state tests. Also, parents might find that the game is too mature for their child. Although these are common problems of materials used by teachers in a classroom, I believe that students could greatly benefit from participating in John Hunter's world peace game.
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