Minecraft As A Mandatory Subject In School? Sweet!
Language
Reading Level
Listen to Article
Sweden has to be one of the coolest places for a kid to grow up in - First, they introduced the concept of schools with no grades or classrooms, then came Monstrum's amazing playgrounds and now, the coolest idea of all - 'Forcing' 13-year-olds to play Minecraft as part of the classroom curriculum.
The seed for this rather radical idea was planted when the government of Sweden organized a national school competition called 'Future City' for which classrooms were asked to submit their ideas about the kind of structures they envisioned in the Sweden of the future.
It was such a success that educators at Stockholm’s Viktor Rydberg school decided to continue this 'out of the box' thinking by incorporating Minecraft into the class curriculum for 13-year-students.
According to the teachers, the game which challenges kids to use their imagination by building virtual worlds complete with electricity grids, water supply pumps and anything else they would like to see in their future, allows students to think beyond the classroom frontiers. This they believe will help them make better decisions as adults, especially about things like the environmental impact of their actions. And while it may sound radical to most people they liken it to teaching a woodcraft class - except in this case, all the construction is being conducted in a virtual world.
So far, 180, 13-year girls and boys, have participated in this mandatory unit, which not surprisingly has been such a huge hit that the school is planning to make it a permanent addition to their curriculum. It of course augments, not replaces, core subjects like math and science. The educators say that even parents who were a little apprehensive about their kids playing video games at school, are now on board and fully support this decision.
We wonder if any school in the US would even consider such a drastic curriculum addition - And how parents would react. What do you think? Be sure to let us know, by adding your comments below.
Resources: The local.se, gizmag.com
Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
13800 Comments
zzzzzzzzzzover 11 yearsCOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- zzzzzzzzzzover 11 yearsLOL
luis10154over 11 yearsthis is so awesome- zzzzzzzzzzover 11 yearsTHIS IS AWESOME!!!!!
jags1515over 11 yearscool
kidgeniusover 11 yearslet me just say, i totally agree with this! and if you disagree, don't blame me when you find out people who do play minecraft have more creativity than you! minecraft makes you use your imagination in a very fun way! if you don't like minecraft, or video games in general, then the future will be tough for you since in the future almost everything will be computerized (im looking at you #student). also, #45, just cause people play video games doesint mean they don't go outside and are lazy (that's the stereotype gamer, making you one of the people who use stereotypes and no one likes) and look at me! i play video games whenever i CAN, and im smarter than 50% of the population of earth (and in some ways 90%)! why? VIDEO GAMES! 1 thing, because of video games, i had a bigger vocabulary then an advanced 5 year old!- kidgeniusover 11 yearslike if you agree
- #studentover 11 yearsi'm also not agreeing with the minecraft subject some students don't like minecraft especially girls!!
- #45over 11 yearsI'm totally against it MINECRAFT is just a video game and people shouldn't have to play a game if they want to. Especially if it has no point to it at all exept to build stuff out of blocks. MINECRAFT SHOULDN'T BE PART OF A KIDS LIFE THEY NEED TO GET OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be active and don't be PEREZO (lazy in spanish)!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Diamondminecartover 11 yearsi love minecraft i could talk about this all day now i feel like to. does anyone now how to create a diamond sky fort in survival ... well i do if you want to know how tune in on the reply on this all you have to do is go onto creative then grab all the stuff you need and the in the bottom grayish bar type " /10debug/ "
- Princess Emilyover 11 yearswow this is cool! i wish my school was like this. in fact i wish it for every every every school in the universe! hope u guys agree with meh.
