The Play Ethic

Education for rule-changers

Enjoyed this ludic metaphor in Neal Lawson's column for the Guardian today on the bigger perspective of comprehensive education:

Education is about more than churning out efficient workers. It's not just what job we want but what kind of world we want to create. Children need the skills not just to play the game but the knowledge to change the rules.

But New Labour embraces a grim view of change in which people only respond to targets or competition. There is no space for consensus, cooperation or caring. Capitalism isn't on the national curriculum, but the education system rigorously prepares the minds of our children for it.

In short, they need an education for the infinite game - where the point is to keep changing the rules of play in society, in order that better games, with more participants, can emerge - rather than for the finite game of produce-and-compete-to-consume-and-display. (See James Carse, and the Play Ethic book, for more).

Kanecast: Sunday Live

Very pleased to be part of my first ever video podcast, courtesy of STV's Sunday Live, a newspaper-review and current-affairs show, produced by an old Scottish-self-government activist pal of mine. (Not sure how long it'll be up for, so here's a directly downloadable clip - beware, it's about 54Mg).

For those of you who aren't that aware of my geographical locus, it might be a bit of an insight: it's definitely (as the clock at the top left of this page would have it), an example of 'Glasgow Time' - 11 year olds on heroin, Muslim outrage at Mohammed's cariacature, sexual harrassment in the workplace, and a documentary on Neo-Nazi rock bands. This is nothing if not a politicized culture...

I'm at another ideas festival...

... This time, in Brisbane, Australia. (Bristol, rather infamously, being the last event of this kind I was involved in). The Ideas Festival has been going strong down under for a few years now, travelling round the major Australian cities. I'm booked to make a keynote speech about the Play Ethic, and participate in a panel or two, from 29th March to 2nd April. Obviously looking forward to it - and there's a great list of other participants, including Jeffrey Masson, Johan Galtung, Cory Doctorow, Frank Furedi and others. I'll be maintaining the same kind of running blog as I did at Bristol, hopefully - if my tech works - in a multimedia way, too.

If there are any Australian readers and supporters of the Play Ethic around - and I know there's some - it'd be great to meet you there.