Playing Civilization
“Children learn as they play. More importantly, in play, children learn how to learn.” —O. Fred Donaldson
At Acton learning and play are inseparable. Learners do not learn facts to memorize, instead they learn stories and discuss how stories of history and current events inspire and apply to their lives. Here’s an example of magical play that we Guides stumbled upon this past week with Discovery Studio learners.
During recess we noticed learners collected in the rock area, organizing and stacking, hustling back and forth, and very clearly playing an organized game. They were acting, recreating a story they read about in Civilization—a part of our Curriculum sharing history from the beginning of time to modern day. Learners have just begun The Story of the World: Volume 1 Ancient Times.
Here’s the magic we witnessed:
Leven: “Let’s build a shelter like the nomads! You can be the fire starter, I’m the blacksmith, and we need shelter builders, come on!”
Sullivan: “We’re nomads! Nomads had no electricity so let’s build like we have no tools like they did. They were the only people on Earth!”
Charlie: “We need to make rock shards! I’ll start.”
Jacob: “We could get pebbles and the blacksmith can sharpen them!”
Sophia: “Yeah, go tell her!”
All learners worked together focused on creating tools with extreme focus and commitment to the community task. Then a learner had a great idea when he got a small scratch.
Jack: "I found a new tool with this leaf! Look how I can use it!”
Cora: “Find a bunch more of those tools, and then when you’re ready come find me! We need more in case others need them.”
Learners continued with this play with extreme attention and ultimate joy, it was beautiful and delightfully unexpected!
At Acton we don’t need tests to know learners understand instead we provide free play and facilitate deep discussion throughout each day. These brilliant learners will forever remember history, not dates exactly but the reasoning of hard decisions, negotiations, and risks. We often repeat that his-story or her-story is a reminder to question the past experiences of others in order to inform our hero’s journey paths. Enter this year’s question: Does the past determine the future.
Civilization curriculum recently started in Discovery and Civilization is also explored (although slightly different) in Spark. Perhaps it might be best explained by an Acton Elementary learner in Austin, Texas. Here is an excerpt brilliantly written by such a learner, an inspiration to our Acton heroes.
“There are a few things my parents need to understand about Civilization at Acton. First of all, civilization just means history. We call it Civilization because it involves more than just what happened a long time ago. We learn about the successes and failures of past civilizations (whether Greek, Roman, or American) and apply what we see to the civilizations we belong to today (whether the United States, Texas, Austin, or Acton Academy). Second, we do learn about history. We don’t spend hours (or even minutes) memorizing timelines or facts, so we may not be able to tell you who signed the Declaration of Independence fifth and at what time he signed it, but we can tell you what it must have taken for him to pick up the pen and sign his name.”
Imagine the history our joyous heroes will write, the decisions, negotiations, and brave leadership they will be responsible for. I feel overwhelmed with hope and trust in our creative nomads, I hope you do too.