LifeIsMyPlayground

I recently read an article in Wired Magazine called Dream Machines – How Games Are Unleashing The Human Imagination.

Will Wright primarily centered his focus on imagination, how it affects the way we play games, and how it is affected in turn by the games we play.

He explains that the human imagination is an amazing thing. As children, we spend much of our time in imaginary worlds, substituting toys and make-believe for the real surroundings that we are just beginning to explore and understand. As we play, we learn. And as we grow, our play gets more complicated. We add rules and goals. The result is something we call games.

We are in a different time than other generations. Our parents lived in a linear logical thinking world: where you went to school, graduated college, started a career with a company and worked for it until retirement. You woke up day after day doing a similar activity and producing similar results.

Todays world is more creative. We are understanding Quantum Physics more and how there are different realities happening at the same time and we have access to any one of them through our thoughts and imagination. We are learning how to create what we want by using our imagination and focus more than hard labor.

Some kids are getting a different kind of education. The age old structured linear education that was developed in the industrial age and once thought of as fantastic no longer is sufficant. We can tell this by the need for programs such as No Child Left Behind. We are realizing that our current educational system does not meet the needs of this generation let alone future generations. We are only beginning to explore what education and schooling of the future will look like but rest assured that what we have today is inadequite and seems like more af a baby sitting service than where children thrive.

I am home schooling my twelve year old daughter so that she is able to create her days and learn what is right in front of her. There are so many opportunities throughout her days that she is able to learn something from such as working with her horses and playing SIMS on the computer. She does get her basics online in a new online way of learning called a Virtual School, where her teachers and school work is all done virtually.

We play games of all kinds from computer to board games, ones we make up and then we also spend time cultivating our imagination by playing games such as, “What If?”.

Keep looking for my list of Marianne’s favorite games coming soon.