“The question is not whether children learn from television, it’s what children learn from television.” - Joan Ganz Cooney, creator of Sesame Street

In the 1960s, Joan Ganz Cooney grew tired of making documentaries about educational inequalities. She could make a film that showed how children from low-income families were getting a raw deal from public education, and she could make her audience care, but she couldn’t compel them to ignite change. That’s when she decided to harness the power of television to speak directly to the children themselves. Children were spending a great deal of time watching television, even when the programming wasn’t designed for someone their age. The children were surely learning something. They were learning about how adults behaved in the situations presented. They learned the commercial jingles and sang them after the TV had been switched off.

Today, children’s consumption of video games is the focus of concern as much as, or perhaps more than television. We recognize the educational value of certain games that focus on reading and arithmetic skills, but what about the rest of games? What do they teach?

Without going to the extremes of considering games children shouldn’t even be playing, such as Grand Theft Auto or God of War, there is plenty to be learned from just about any video game. I’m not so naive as to say kids don’t play M-rated games, but that’s a different discussion entirely.

Video games are environment simulations. There are experiences you can have in video games that you can’t have anywhere else. And just about every experience a person has is bound to teach her something, or enrich her life in some way.

Take, for example, role playing games. To the eye of a non-gamer, a Zelda game might be about slaying foes with a sword. But there’s really much more thought involved. There’s a great deal of story reading, there are riddles to be solved, and decisions to be made. When you aren’t sure what your next move should be, and nothing you’re trying is helping you advance in the game, you face the decision of sticking it out on your own, or consulting the internet or a book for help. What teacher wouldn’t love an activity that has children eager to research for more knowledge?

It’s also important for children to have an environment where it is safe to experience failure. Failure is an important step in the process of learning. The real world can be a harsh place to experience failure. If you fail in context of school or a team sport, the consequences could include embarrassment, ridicule, or punishment. Sometimes, failure in school is often flat out unacceptable. Students are simply expected to study and memorize until they can perform well on exams.

In video games, failure is a very natural part of the learning process, and it is expected that you will fail at a given task several times before you succeed. What better way to learn resilience and perseverance?