Bugs by a hair

In How Computer Games Help Children Learn, I wrote about the power of games to help children learn about the world, quoting Lev Vygotsky, one of the most famous developmental psychologists of the last century:

As Vygotsky explains, all games are ‘the realization in play form of tendencies that cannot be immediately gratified.’ In playing games, children are doing explicitly, openly, and socially what as adults they will do tacitly, privately, and personally. They are running simulations of worlds they want to learn about in order to understand the rules, roles, and consequences of those worlds. They are learning to think by examining alternatives in play.

I was reminded of Vygotsky this past Tuesday. My wife and I went to vote in the presidential primary and our kids came with us. We showed them the ballot, and talked about our choices. (My wife and I both voted for the same candidate. Our daughters split their allegiance.)

After we came home, the kids had a friend over, and as part of their play the three girls made their own primary election. We all voted–which involved giving our name to a poll worker, getting a ballot, going into a closet to mark it, and then placing the ballot into the collecting machine.

Then we had to leave the room and wait for the official tally of the vote.

The ballot looked something like this:

Republican
Cinderella
Snow White

Democrat
Gabriella
Nemo

Independent
Bugs Bunny
Scooby Doo

For those not up on elementary school cultural references, Gabriella is the ingenue in the latest Disney craze, High School Musical.

And for those curious about the outcome of the balloting, Bugs Bunny beat Gabriella 3 votes to 2. The exit polls showed that Gabriella and Bugs split the female vote, but Bugs held a commanding lead among voters 18 and over, and that pushed him over the top.