Should Gaming Be A Subject In School?
It’s about time that gaming is introduced as a subject in schools. According to a report published by Wired, there are over 2.5 billion active gamers globally. Similarly, there are about 265 million people worldwide who participate in a sport, according to the report.
Yet sports whose popularity is lower compared to gaming are now taught in our schools. It begs the question; why is gaming not yet being offered in school as a subject? Having gaming as a subject in school should be what’s done because gaming is the future, Is a full-time profession for many, and offers valuable skills encouraging learners to work together.
Gaming Offers Skills That Can Be Valuable to the Real World
Every teenager loves video games. It is very prevalent in today’s society. You will most likely see a video game in every teenager’s smart device. Since it is very common for teenagers to indulge in video games, having gaming as a subject in school should be what’s done. But why hasn’t it been done so?
Anything that offers a skill(s) that can prove to be useful in the real world can be taught in school as a subject. In fact, that’s what formal education is all about. Gaming provides better decision-making skills and good hand to eye coordination skills. Both skills can be useful in the real world. Many jobs require these skills including those in the manufacturing, driving, automotive service, and surgery sectors, etc.
Gaming can create learning opportunities for students, be it on subjects or behavior. Students can learn about the importance of life values like teamwork and strategizing through video games. Some games require students to exercise their knowledge of subjects like Mathematics when solving visual puzzles. When gaming involves teams, students will need to know how to communicate with each other and create game plans while focusing on how to win the game. It is very much like traditional sports such as basketball and soccer, where players need to come up with plans to prevent others from getting the ball. As such, gaming will enable learners to play together, thereby developing valuable teamwork and interpersonal skills. These skills will go a long way in their social lives and future career.
Gaming Is Now a Full-Time Profession for Many (E-sport)
What is E-sport (Electronic sport)?
E-sports is a form of competitive sport that evolved from traditional sports. Although E-sports are distinct from their contemporaries, they are nonetheless impacted by the latter, as such, their competitive nature is still preserved. Just like traditional sports, e-sports requires long and strenuous training to perfect one’s techniques, so no one can say that E-sports would make students lazier.
Why is it useful for students and young generations?
Every profession has a subject(s) attributed to it. For example, to be able to join the legal profession, one must have studied certain subjects in high school or college e.g law, English, public speaking, history, government, mathematics, and economics. The same should apply to the gaming profession as well, one has to study gaming to be able to participate in E-sport.
Due to the rise of esports, many gamers have taken part in it and turned gaming into a full-time profession, as in playing games for a living. Furthermore, esports is much safer than traditional sports, as students do not need to move around or get injured during the process of playing or training. They can only gain more knowledge and experiences.
The industry for E-sports is rapidly growing at this time, perhaps to the point that it might surpass many other industries or companies. Many companies such as G-fuel, Red bull, Adidas, Logitech, BMW, Puma, Coca-cola, Steel series, Samsung, Intel, etc, are looking to e-sports as a profitable investment, and there’s no doubt that schools and students can benefit from the growth of esports. E-sports can be placed alongside, if not a substitute for traditional physical education lessons. Gaming should be one of the potential subjects to study in school before qualifying as a professional gamer.
Conclusion
However, cultural resistance often hampers the ability to include gaming in schools. Educational theory is often not enough to prove to teachers that gaming can have positive impacts on students. Furthermore, students may not be able to transfer what they learnt from video games over to physical classroom work, due to the difference in these learning styles. In such cases, gaming may hinder students’ ability to learn rather than assisting them in the race for knowledge.
Gaming might not be adopted in schools now due to the common outdated mindsets of old-school teachers, there is hope that in the future, society will come to accept gaming as the norm, and gaming can be incorporated into the curriculum. in school. Gaming should no longer be considered a time-killing activity. Instead, it should be thought about as a serious profession and schools should start considering teaching gaming and turn it into a subject for school curriculums.
