By: Alexander Rolnick
History Teacher
Mary Institute Country Day School

“True colonization did not occur in our lands, but in our minds; the moment we give up and refuse to fight is when we have truly lost,” advises a mild mannered psychiatrist turned Algerian freedom fighter at the close of a speech arguing for the necessity of anti-colonial political violence.

The room breaks into applause and tension escalates as a young nationalist leader from Southern Rhodesia rises to question the psychiatrist, “There is no need for the fear, corruption, and violence that war brings to be forced upon a fledgling nation.” A heated discussion on the merits and drawbacks of the legitimacy and value of violence for achieving national liberation follows.

Although a moment like this happened in 1958 in Accra, Ghana at the All African Peoples Conference, instead this describes high school students in my African History class role playing historical figures, participating in one of the most sophisticated discussions I’ve listened to my students engage in over a decade of teaching high school.

My discovery of the Reacting pedagogy in 2021 provided a useful framework for developing my use of simulation and role play in the classroom to a new level, and has revolutionized my teaching. I’ve also found the best fridge benefit I never imagined when I first went searching for an engaging way to teach about the Cold War and discovered a prototype of Eyeball to Eyeball: a positive and constructive community of educators - at both the university and secondary level - who believe that the best learning happens through active experience.

After finding success adapting Eyeball to Eyeball in my context, I applied for professional development funding from the independent (private) high school I work at in St. Louis to support my attendance at Reacting Annual’s Institute, and the rest is history. At this conference, between trying to avoid dying as a rural Indian villager in Indian Independence 1945 and exploiting the working classes as a merchant in Engines of Mischief, I met another Reacting neophyte and shared a basic working prototype for a game I was developing focused on African decolonization. That prototype - now a shared endeavor with my co-author Eric Covey that we’ve invested hundreds of hours to develop - is called Hands Off Africa, and is on its way towards a place on the Reacting website.

This project revitalized my love of amateur historical research, and has led to the adaptation of other Reacting games, and new projects aimed at encouraging the passionate discussions that the Reacting frameworks for historical role play encourage. For the St. Louis History class that all Juniors take at my school, I used the short game framework to develop a prototype for a civil rights protest short game set in 1963 St. Louis based on the (locally) iconic Jefferson Bank protest. I convinced my colleagues to run it, and last fall they all ran the game. Despite never having run a Reacting-style game, my colleagues found success: 86.3% of the 131 students who responded to a post-survey found it either “helpful” or “extremely helpful” compared to “traditional instruction.” Only four judged it to be “unhelpful,” which for high school students is pretty astounding.

Overwhelmingly, the feedback I receive from students on learning with the Reacting pedagogy reiterates the value of these learning experiences to their educational experience. A significant benefit of Reacting is, of course, the significant library of games available for use and adaptation, but the game development frameworks have also significantly improved my capacity to develop and offer high quality learning experiences to students.

Indeed, two students in my African History class later reflected on their experience playing a prototype of my game in development: “Using role playing games as an interactive way of learning instead of traditional teaching methods gives students another way to understand challenging material. It allows students to use critical thinking skills, imagination, and everyday life skills, such as negotiation and compromise when working with others, while also participating in a fun activity.”

Learning should be fun, and Reacting offers an antidote to the boredom most people associate with classes in history while still working thoughtfully to develop the knowledge and skills that students need to find success both in and outside of school. It has also enriched my experience of my classroom and provided some of the most significant highlights of my teaching career thus far.

Alex Rolnick will be facilitating a session specifically for high school teachers and GMing "Hands off Africa!" with his co-author Eric Covey during this year's High School Fall Conference at GVSU. If you're interested in seeing how Reacting can transform your classroom firsthand consider registering today!

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