Spartans, Soccer-Parents, & Education

A History of Games

A fierce society recognized for its unprecedented commitment to strength, wit, and comradery, the culture of ancient Greek city-state Sparta revolved around developing each child to become resilient and loyal. The Spartans were aware of the simple and obvious fact that the health of their society relied on the citizens that would grow to inherit it. So they constructed an elaborate public education system - the agoge, a regimen to teach boys to be physically agile, strategic, and cooperative and a similar program for girls to learn writing, dance, gymnastics, as well as compete in sports. Games were the center of this training. Serious games. Each training game had a purpose and lesson, a real-world application that tested survival. All Spartan adults were prepared from childhood to fight for their society.

Games are an inherent part of our human history – they preserve traditions and make a culture grow. Just as language is a cornerstone of every civilization, games provide a very similar forum of social interaction – they operate on agree-upon rules, context, and afford self-expression. Games allow children to model their behavior as their future adult selves, and they allow adults to improve their skills in a lower-risk environment. The game of doing something teaches how to do it for real.

Games Today

Today, games are seen a social pastime and not a way of imparting survival skills as it once did for the Spartans. Games like chess, sports, and charades provide hours of entertainment for modern-day folks. And in more recent years, people engage in all of these fun activities from any location and with anyone in the world through online video games. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) connect millions of players in an alternate game space. World of Warcraft, for example, as of 2014, has more than 100 million user accounts over the game’s lifetime. We find ourselves at a critical point in history where we have the opportunity to return to our roots, to once more use games as a vehicle for the education of survival. But this time, we will be able to give this opportunity to the billions of Earth’s residents.

Age of Connectivity

Every person in this world has a voice, but with technology, every voice can be heard. A person doesn’t have to have formal credentials to contribute to greater goals and put their stake in the ground. During the aftermath of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, ultra high-resolution satellite images covering more than one million square kilometers were gathered and offered to the public for viewing and identification. Over 8 million volunteers stepped up to this calling and logged on to identify signs of wreckage, debris, and oil spills. The process of orienting the volunteer to the context at hand, training them in the task, and accepting their participation, like many games today, served as an opportunity for people to learn and perform in a low-risk, high-impact position.

The very real global concern of environmental conservation has also felt the benefits of massive collaborative efforts. Cocos Island in Costa Rica is home to a rich ecosystem of sea turtles, sharks, and fish, protected by a 12 nautical mile no-take zone. Yet, industrial fishers and poachers have been found damaging habitats for personal gain, setting longlines, often over 60 miles, with thousands of baited hooks indiscriminately killing all marine life in its path. In order to spot these fishers and their boats, crowd-sourced volunteers carefully review satellite images, in much the same manner as for the Malaysia Airlines catastrophe, and report any signs of activity. Garnering the help of the Earth’s citizens on a massive scale is proving to be a powerful tool for all of humanity.

What does Survival Mean Today?

The Spartans used the agoge as a training context for understanding how the real-world operates, educating its youth and citizens about real existing dangers and modeling their behavior for pro-social causes. Much like these early days when training was preponderantly useful for survival, we are at a historical turning point when we are again fighting to protect our home front and stay alive. Today our survival isn’t based on immediate needs for food or mating, thanks to McDonald's and Tinder. But we do face critical life-threatening challenges in the form of environmental deterioration – the alarming decline of biodiversity, rapid and steady climate changes, and energy resource shortages. Our key to survival is now an educated youth that will rise up and save the earth, our only home. If we want to succeed, we must make education become a survival instinct.

This is our time in history to draw on the lessons of our past and trust that we can be as resilient and committed as the Spartans, while utilizing our innovations and capabilities to nurture a conscientious, intellectually curious, and resourceful youth. Games provide the appropriate platform for getting the next generation of stake holders to take on adult-like roles in science and act as a call to all citizens of our planet to get involved in the global mission. Today’s games, world connectivity, and communication technologies are the tools our children will need to soar.

Games will no longer be seen as a distraction for youth, but as serious training for what’s to come – the responsibilities, the power, and the pride that come with being an active creator of humanity’s survival in a world where educational prowess is as important as the physical battlefield was to our capable ancestors.