Afternoon Adventures and Reluctant Readers

So, browsing through the September issue of Dragon (issue 335), "First Watch," page 20, I noticed the Afternoon Adventures with Dungeons and Dragons and Mirrorstone's Adventures for Reluctant Readers program(s).

I called the 1-800 number, and now. . . something. . . is en route to the library of the school where I'm a credential candidate.

Does anybody here know if this is two seperate programs or an all-in-one, inclusive deal, and, moreover, just what sort of general impressions you have.

Has anyone here even gotten their copy/package/kit/whatever yet?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the links below, and/or Dragon 335.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/library

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/knights/reluctantreader

Oh, and one more thing: Does anybody here think I'll get grief for receiving a parcel at the school where I don't even actually work?

I know about this project, because several of my colleagues (who were already running D&D games at their libraries) were asked for input. Another of my colleagues has already received her package, which includes the basic set and a few of the WotC novels that are written at about 5th grade level. There is also some promotional material included.

This project came about because of a discussion on PUBYAC, which is a listserv for PUBlic librarians who serve Young Adults and Children. The gist of the discussion was that D&D fosters cooperation, enhances reading and math skills, and encourages imaginative yet structured play. These are all things that everybody wishes children and young teens to be better at, so if librarians want to help build these skills, they ought to be running D&D games after school at public libraries across the land. Someone from WotC happened across the discussion; perhaps they had been thinking the same thing and started monitoring PUBYAC to see which way the wind was blowing. Regardless, they went off and developed this kit.

I hope it works. I think after school D&D games for young teens are a fantastic idea. At my library we're starting up a league in September, but the only time we were able to do it is on Saturdays. We'll see how that flies.

I have to admit - I felt a little hinky about calling.

I've wanted to pick up the Basic Game for some time - partially because I think that it might be helpful in teaching adolescents to play my favorite game, and partially because I want that black dragon mini for myself.

When I called, they wanted to know what library I was calling from. I was on my mobile phone, at home, so I told them that it was the XX High School Library, where XX is the school where I'll begin my teaching credential candidacy Thursday.

I do intend to use this at school. Maybe even this school. If they are persnickity about it, they can certainly keep the stuff when I leave, but I suspect I'll probably take it with me to add to my own collection - from which, in turn, I will draw from to teach D&D to my students.

I am fully aware that if I manage to start an after-school D&D group, I will not be the first to have done so, and I'm aware that teachers swipe educational material all the time for personal use/reference/rainy day, but I guess that I feel like I'm getting one over on WotC or on PUBYAC.

Arbiter of Wyrms said:

I guess that I feel like I'm getting one over on WotC or on PUBYAC.

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You do know that WotC employees read this board?

PUBYAC has no stake in this. I'm sorry if my post implied that. That is merely the place (for all I know, one of several places) where discussion about this project took place.

Buttercup said:

You do know that WotC employees read this board?

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Yeah, I know. If it comes right down to it, I can forego the package and go on advocating WotC's products for free to help grow the hobby. I don't know why I feel like I'm getting away with something - I'm really not. I'm just stoked that this is available to help me encourage students who need a genre that speaks to them or those who need "interactive literature."

I think that this program is great for eveyone involved.
Teachers win because we get more resources to help our students without further straining our budgets.

Wizards wins because they get educators to advertise to exactly the audience they want to target, and they get this advertising cheaply.

Librarians win because 1) people are enjoying literature 2) people get to see that libraries are interested in providing all sorts of valuable programs to just about anyone, and for free 3) people are getting smarter 4) it doesn't come out of their budget and 5) (and this is conjecture based on my theory that most Librarians represent the next stage of human evolution) More people are exposed to the twin wonderlands that are literature and mathematics, enriching the lives of those who might one day pay taxes and make private donations by teaching them how to enjoy learning, use printed reference material, and play nicely together without being totally inept, mathematically.

Adolescents win because they get a safe and positive environment in which to learn D&D and develop an appreciation for general scholarship.

Too often, school isn't fun, and, in fact, some schools actively discourage fun on the reasoning that they believe it is exclusive to learning. Learning and fun go hand in hand and I believe that D&D players know that while too many non-gamers don't.

My wife begins her Master's in Library Information Sciences, um, next tuesday. She's very interested in this. She worked the summer in a learning resources library, and hopes to get into the same thing soon, so she'll probably be contacting her superiors and Wizards about this soon.

This is the sort of thing she loves ... I'm not sure how this new school is set up, but her old library was on a college campus, but the campus sponsored alot of young kids who were there in droves. Would have been something interesting.

For my part, I can't really relate to kids very well. I'm too darn uptight.

--fje

When I'm back in class this fall, I'll definatly see if I can get the campus library to look into this program. This is just...neat!

RedWick said:

When I'm back in class this fall, I'll definatly see if I can get the campus library to look into this program. This is just...neat!

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RedWick, are you a high school student?

If, so, what year are you starting? How do you think most high-schoolers look at D&D? It's been a while for me, but I'm fairly sure that it would have been seen as deviant and uncool when I was in school, and I'm trying to figure out how to circumvent that to encourage students to learn.

Many of the students I work with don't attend to their studies, in part, because they're afraid of be seen as "nerds" or "geeks," and equate scholarship with social ineptitude. If I can't get them to study because it's not "cool," I'm not going to get them to study for priveledge of doing something which is also seen as "uncool."

Oboy, I can just hear Pat Robertson now....

Not only are we teaching our kids such Anti-Christian ideas as Evolution;

Not only have we removed prayer from our schools;

Not only do we have plenty of violence already in our schools;

But also our schools are actively encouraging Satan worship, mindless violence, greed, and unGodliness through this devil's game, "Dungeons & Dragons!"

Geesh. I really do think this is a cool idea, and were I still working in education I would jump on it like a shot, but I can just hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from those people who want our schools to teach their ideas.

I just don't know. There might be some unintended consequences here.

I really don't like the idea of school faculty and staff seeming to endorse the kind of violence that occurs in a typical D&D game. I suppose you might come up with some nonviolent adventures, but I can't think of any plot hooks off the top of my head.

TWK

Intentionally or otherwise, teachers already advocate their own values to their students. That's part of the awesome priveledge and responsability of being an educator. I think that D&D, in moderation, is a normal, healthy activity. I hope that my students will feel the same to, and to the extent that it comes up as a relavant part of their educational experience with me, I will certainly not be above prostelitizing my point of view.

A friend of mine, when she worked at the local Juvenille Correctional Facility, wanted me to come in and teach D&D to the kids there. The idea didn't fly with her supervisor, but I thought that it was a terrific idea. Plenty of inmates get vocational training, in hopes that when the system releases them from its care, they will be able to earn a living because they have a trade.

Frankly, I'm not as worried about how parolees and ex-cons spend their workday as I am about how they spend their off-time. Idle hands and all. I know plenty of people who have had their share of run-ins with the police, and I think that the temptation/tendency to fall in with the people you know and the activities with which you're familiar is great. I'd like them to have a habit to get together with fellow roleplayers for a night of D&D, rather than falling in with drug, vandal, violent, or larcenous subcultures.

As for the violence in D&D games, I plan to run two different types of games:
1) the Vile Darkness, moral ambiguity game of thrones and cutthroat, back-alley violence that I currently run - this will be for adults. Generally PG, occasionally R, rarely NC-17.

2) a simpler, exploration-type campaign where violent, slavery monsters can be slain in self-defense, but where killing humanoids is always, or nearly always, murder. If all the villans have to be dealt with through thinking, and the violence is expressed against "non-people," I think I can run a game for students which nearly all parents will be able to at least tolerate.

I'm actually more worried about the administration's/faculty's fears that this will distract/detract from the cirricullum.