I just came across something rather exciting that I must have known once: the Latin word ‘ludus’ means ‘school’ and ‘game’! I was reading ‘Ready Player One’, a novel by Ernest Cline about a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMUG), and there it was (p 69). The main character in the story, Wade, suddenly has the same revelation and this marks a turning point in his virtual game quest.

This made me think about why these two meanings, which seem very different from each other today, were once seen as closely connected. An internet search unearthed this book: ‘Games: Purpose and Potential in Education’ edited by Christopher Thomas Miller. So far I have only had the chance to read sections but the following quote is particularly interesting in this context:

“[W]e mentioned the Latin word ludus, which was used for institutional or performance games. A most interesting finding, perhaps even shocking to some readers, is that the same word belonged to the world of education as well. Teachers were in fact called magister ludi (literally, Game Master) and what we could today call schooling was called ludus (literally, Game). […] education was the means to groom children into real men and citizens of the nation, through the tutelage of a wise teacher, as in the case of Alexander the Great, who was tutored by Aristotle. In this sense education or schooling (ludus) was an institutionalized means to engage youngsters in autotelic activities meant for the development of a free person. While historical differences are great and would require hundreds of pages to be accounted for, the ideal aim assigned to the education system is strikingly close to our perception of what schools should be made for.” (p 17)

The expectation  that some readers might find it “shocking” that the concepts of ‘game’ and ‘school’ used to be covered by one word in the civilisation we often see as the origin of our own, shows that we are now conceptually quite removed from such an understanding.  Maybe this historical connection accounts to some extent for our continued interest in using games for educational purposes?

By the way, if you like me struggle to get your head round the concept of MMUGs (and do not want to become a player to get a clearer idea), give ‘Ready Player One’ a go…

References:

Cline, E. (2011) Ready player one. London: Random House Publishing

Miller, C.T. (ed.) (2009), Games: purpose and potential in education. New York: Springer