RPGs key to wholesome children

Since I began teaching in Louisiana, I’ve appreciated changes in the school calender - especially the decision to postpone spring break until after our state testing is over.
No matter where you go in town, if you are anywhere near a teacher or parent near testing time, you will hear stressful chatting about state tests.
No wonder. Test scores determine whether a student will pass to the next grade. State test scores are part of each school’s report card.
As soon as testing is over, we heave a sigh of relief, and dance with joy. We are tempted to put everything about testing out of sight, out of mind.
Who can blame us?
Many a parent has promised their child new computer games if they cooperate and do what they have to do to pass their iLEAP, the LEAP, and the ACT tests. I’ve chatted with many a student who expects to buy a new “RPG” as a reward for their hard work.
I had to ask a bright sixth grader what an “RPG” is, and was told -- with a bit of disdain -- that the student was buying a new “Role Playing Game.” I was showing my age again. My students are not playing with toys anything like the barbie dolls and lego games that I played with as a child.
Well, I happen to be one of those teachers who believes that children should engage in imaginative play, and that school learning activities should be fun. I’ve read a few studies that claim that RPGs are very therapeutic - if they are well-designed to reinforce positive, cooperative social skills.
But, RPGs are NOT good for kids when they “reinforce negative social pathologies.”
Big words. What do they mean? When parents or other adults are actively engaged in the role playing - by monitoring to ensure positive social skills are practiced, then, the games are good for kids.
But, who has time to sit and play computer games with their kids these days?
Just by listening to my students in the playground, and checking up on the games they discussed, I soon found out that a lot of the “RPG” games our students are playing on their XBOX 360s are anything but imaginative play.
To my surprise, most of the “RPGs” do not inspire creativity at all. They are designed to explore killing and they teach children criminal activities such as stealing cars. For a few minutes in a public place, I watched a few teenagers play a game where they were strategizing the takeover of a building - “fantasy playing” stealth operations where they killed, maimed and blew up people.
I was relieved to learn that middle school children, for the most part, confine their war games to the conquering of dragons and zombies.
But, still. These games are expensive, and parents usually have to pay for them. I doubt that hours and hours of killing zombies on a computer stimulates a child’s creative energy as much as they teach a child how to get revenge when they harbor angry thoughts about their peers or their parents.
I don’t need to cite a dozen research articles to convince you that killing zombies on a computer will not make our children feel secure or happy. Parents who spend time with their kids - baking, fishing, playing cards, mudriding, walking the beach - these are the memory-making activities that will build a lifetime of self-confidence and happiness in every child.
So, before you go buy your child another computerized Role Playing Game, I hope you will ask yourself this question: Is this the kind of game I want to sit and play with my child to build up a lifetime of shared creative memories?
If it isn’t, then go down to the sports aisle, and buy a different kind of RPG: Buy fishing rods, roller skates, basketballs - anything that will get you all off the couch so that your kids can play Real Games with Parents.
Get moving, get playing, and build a bank of memories that your child can draw on no matter what happens in life.
Computerized Role Playing Games mostly reinforce negative pathologies in our society. Real Games with Parents, on the otherhand, make our children strong, resilient, and confident enough to slay the real dragons who cross our paths in real life.
Which will you choose for your family this summer?