John Hunter, 1978, was faced with what appeared as an impossible situation. Upon applying for and being hired for a job with gifted students, he felt extremely unprepared for the job and was responded to with the question: "What do you want to do?" This changed his whole philosophy of teaching!
With this freedom and challenge, Hunter devised an (interactive) game for solving world problems by his students. This game is 4x4x4 plexiglass layers representing outer space, space, ground/sea level, and undersea level. The ground level has various countries which the students name and the teacher presents the problems which the students then solve amongst themselves. Each country has it's own cabinet, etc. The "rulebook" is a 13-page document of problems including minority tensions, famine, etc. Students take that and solve the problems amongst themselves- without the teacher. He actually apologizes that he doesn't know the answers, but that the nation has been left a mess for them to solve. The control is given to those who will make the difference!!! They learn how to do right by first approaching and engaging with the wrong.
Is this approach, this game, teaching what can't be taught in books? What has been the result? Kids are learning hands on- things that would never be approached otherwise. The students basically teach themselves and are taught to be people- not robots. There's always more outside the box.
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