Daniel Gallagher
Professor Crachiolo
UWP 1
11/06/13
Roll the Dice
Every fall, the Gallagher family treks down the Northern Coast of California to
Bodega Bay. I have been going annually since I was seven months old. A typical day
on a Bodega trip is to wake up early to the sound of my young cousins screaming
and yelling around the beach shack on Pelican Ave. I’ll roll out of bed and open my
door to the sweet aroma of bacon sizzling on a skillet. Our breakfast always includes
a cornucopia of fruits, eggs and breakfast meats. After the delicious feast, we pack
our lunches and head down to the beach. As I walk down, I can feel the soothing
combination of the beating sun and the cool ocean breeze. The crisp ocean breeze
smells like salty seawater. We will play football on the grainy sand and body surf in
the ice-cold water. After spending a day at the beach, I’ll head back to the house,
hose myself off all the pebbles of sand and jump into the hot tub with a refreshing
bottle of root beer. Following the hot tub session, we will have a big Italian style
dinner. All anticipation leads to what caps off the long day, game night.
Game nights are a tradition on the Gallagher Bodega trip. The guys will have
a poker night. My brother and I have played with my dad and uncles ever since we
were eight and six years old. Game nights are always accompanied by delicious
snacks prepared by grandma, like her warm, jalapeno artichoke dip with pita chips.
My dad, uncles and grandpa are sipping on beers while my brother and I were
constantly wired on sugary sodas. Truth be told, the real rivalries came out when
classic Monopoly came out to play.
Board games, like Monopoly, have helped mold my family into who we are.
They can provide educational benefits to children by teaching them basic life
lessons. This can be seen through studies and interviews with successful people.
Monopoly has been a popular board game for generations. It has been a common
staple of educational board games for a long time. Monopoly, along with other board
games, can teach life lessons like basic financial principles, social relationships,
problem-solving skills and ultimately feed the competitive drive to win.
Monopoly has taught children basic financial principles through the decisions
made in the game. It is great practice for managing a budget and making financial
investments without having to actually put down money in a real life situation.
Monopoly is a great simulation for investing, and complements a school’s education.
Philip Orbanes, author of the book Monopoly, Money, and You: How to Profit From the
Game’s Secrets of Success, was interviewed and shared his views on the benefits of
playing the classic board game. “People don’t necessarily come out of school with
the training or experience to invest or handle money, and advice that’s typically
offered is rather abstract. Monopoly can help” (“Pass”). Monopoly offers hands on
experience on handling a budget and investing in property. It also teaches kids to
spend within their means while balancing out risk to make more money. “You need
to be invested, and that means taking risk. If you stay completely safe in cash,
eventually you’ll lose” (“Pass”). Monopoly teaches kids to be aggressive in their
investments while still managing a balanced budget. It instructs kids to plan ahead
for the future. The most fundamental skill of being financially stable is learning basic
arithmetic. Math can be boring to children. I often hear from my peers how they
were turned off to math because of how uninteresting it was to them growing up.
Board games are a fun way to learn numbers and can benefit the learning process.
This provides a refutation to the doubters that believe kids are better off studying in
school. A Carnegie Mellon study revealed a, “Group of low-income preschoolers,
playing a board game with numbers, such as Chutes and Ladders, helped them
improve their performance on four kinds of numerical tasks” (Williams). Simple
games like Chutes and Ladders will feed an appetite for learning and complement a
school’s curriculum. All of these are useful skills that can be translated to the real
world.
Another real world skill that can be learned from board games like Monopoly
is how to communicate and act on a social level. Psychologists have given out
praises to simple children’s games and talk about their benefits. “Finding games
your shy child enjoys will help him or her experience the positive benefits of social
interaction, and may open the door to more social confidence” (Matthews and
Itzhaki). Children learn share, take turns and handle relationships with peers
through board games. In Monopoly, people must be fair and not cheat. Kids learn
how to work out fair trades and benefit each other. Good sportsmanship is taught in
between players by abiding by the rules. If a player gets caught cheating, penalties
are involved like in real life scenarios.
Cheating is a tactic that should never be used. So as the old adage goes, “If
you want something done, you’re best off doing it yourself.” Board games help
improve individual problem solving ability. Board games, like Monopoly, involve a
winner and a loser. There are many different ways to end up on top. Other games
like Chess and Scrabble have infinite possibilities to end up on the winning side.
Chess, Scrabble and Monopoly all teach players how to plan ahead for their next
moves. At the end of the game, players must find ways to win by themselves.
Each board game has a new set of rules, which can keep kids sharp and
flexible. Players must learn how to adapt to the new set of rules. Each board game
has its own set of strategies and learning experiences. Scrabble and Boggle teaches
kids to increase their vocabulary. Pictionary feeds kids their creativity side and
builds teamwork with other players. Like coaches will always say, “There is no I in
TEAM!” Yes, coach you are certainly right. But, there is an I in WIN!
In order to be successful, a person must individually want it for himself.
Board games feed the human drive to compete and win. Board games show children
how to have fun with a victory and how to recover from a defeat. They also teach
kids resiliency and how to come back to win the next competition. Growing up I
always wanted to be crowned as the victor in our “friendly” board game nights. This
skill translates into life as I am now always striving to get better in anything I do.
Board games are an essential stepping-stone of childhood to help kids maximize
their potential farther down the line.
Board games have been a timeless instructional tool that has been helping
kids maximize their potential for many generations. Board games can teach life
lessons like basic financial principles, social relationships, problem-solving skills
and help children discover their competitive drive to win. Teachers, coaches and
parents will continue to use games like Monopoly, Pictionary and Chess to bring out
the skills in children that will help kids become the best they can be. Classic games
will continue to live on because of their cheap entertainment value and priceless life
lessons. So, roll the dice! It’s your turn!
Works Cited
Matthews, Patrick, and Sarah Itzhaki, PhD. "Shyness in Children." Shyness in
Children. G4ed.com, 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
"Pass Go. Collect Life Lessons." Kiplinger's Personal Finance 67.5 (2013): 14.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Williams, Mari-Jane. "A Winning Strategy." Washington Post. Washington Post, 14
Jan. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.