December 23, 2024
By Jenna Fournel, Director of Teaching and Learning
Prefer audio? Listen to this week’s Hooray For Monday podcast.
A few weeks ago, my son and I attended a “game night” with his girlfriend’s family. On the way to their house, we were both feeling a little nervous. While we’d played plenty of games in our own home, we weren’t sure what it would be like with people who, to put it simply, weren’t us. I’d only met this family a few times before.
Would I embarrass my son in front of them? Would they be cutthroat competitors? Would we even know how to play their games?
I tempered my own anxiety with the mantra I’ve tried to adopt of late: Be Curious. And you know what? We had a really good time. I did embarrass my son but that led to much-needed laughter. Both families tried new games (Taboo for us, Hues and Clues for them). The competition was joyful. And we left knowing, and caring, more about each other than we did coming in the door.
I thought of the wonder of that game night a few days later when I read David Brooks’ fascinating cover story in The Atlantic: How the Ivy League Broke America.
In the piece, Brooks argues for a re-defining of merit in our educational system as a means of addressing inequity and reinstating trust in our public institutions. He suggests priority be placed on selecting “for people’s motivation to grow and learn across their whole lifespan” in order to nurture leaders who are “wise, perceptive, curious, caring, resilient, and committed to the common good.”
Brooks’ article speaks volumes about what needs to happen in preK-12 schools as well as higher education. He argues that because our social structures don’t place value on these qualities we don’t teach them and we haven’t designed schools as places where students can learn them. He writes, “our meritocratic system encourages people to focus narrowly on cognitive tasks, but curiosity demands play and unstructured free time.”
At Inspired Teaching we believe all change for our students starts with change in ourselves. So, what if we start right now? What if this winter break, we prioritize connection and learning new things over all the other usual demands? What might our brains be capable of after playing outside our comfort zones for several days in a row?
If you’re not sure where to begin, may I recommend the following:
Invite over some friends you’re just getting to know, or a combination of friends who don’t know each other, for game night.
Ask folks to bring food to share to make the planning easy and spontaneous. The more eclectic, the better — a dinner of desserts at the end of the year is fully allowed.
Encourage guests to bring their favorite board games and dust off some of your own. Invite everyone to give a brief pitch for their game and choose what to try first by vote or run multiple games in small groups.
Open your doors to the unexpected, be curious, and play!
May the days ahead offer you the “unstructured free time” that curiosity demands so you can pursue all manner of wonders and delights.
For additional insights, resources, and information on Inspired Teaching teacher and youth programming, subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter!
Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.