comments on education from the creator of The Sims

“The problem with our education system is

we’ve taken this kind of narrow, reductionist,

Aristotelian approach to what learning is.

It’s not designed for experimenting with complex systems

and navigating your way through them in an intuitive way,

which is what games teach. It’s not really designed for failure,

which is also something games teach. I mean, I think that failure

is a better teacher than success. Trial and error,

reverse-engineering stuff in your mind—

all the ways that kids interact with games—

that’s the kind of thinking schools should be teaching.

And I would argue that as the world becomes more complex,

and as outcomes become less about success or failure,

games are better at preparing you. The education system

is going to realize this sooner or later. It’s starting. Teachers

are entering the system who grew up playing games.

They’re going to want to engage with the kids using games.”

Will Wright, from Wikipedia entry