John Hunter and the World Peace Game

Who is John Hunter?  John Hunter is one of the most inspirational teacher I have ever encountered.  He is one of those teachers who children look up to and inspire those to become future educators themselves. Hunter showed so much compassion for his students and cares about what they are gaining out of class.  I'm not saying that other teachers do not care if their students are learning or not, but Hunter takes his class on a journey that many teachers feel it being too vigorous for the students.  Hunter taught 4th grade gifted students.  In 1978, he created a game to teach his students about the problems in Africa.  Instead of lecturing his students, Hunter wanted to build a model for his students to see what he was talking about.  Hunter's World Peace game consists of the different layers that comprise of the ground level, sky level, and outer space.  On the ground level, there are four countries that the students have made up.  Hunter gave his students a list of problems/crises and wanted to see how they would solve them.  To our astonishment, the students were actually discussing and collaborating with one another to solve their problems.

John Hunter shows us that we do not need the Common Core to get students to think critically and/or collaborate with each other.  Where Hunter teaches at, the state of Virginia does not implement the Common Core State Standards.  This goes to show that we do not need the Common Core to get students to think as "college-and-career-ready" students.