Games Students Play -- Introduction

In the 70s a series of books by Ken Ernst came out that was highly influential for my ministry. The First was Games People Play, a subsequent one and the one I'll focus on in a series of posts was Games Students Play. I have put an amazon link on my links page.

First of all, these books are not about fun games to play. Sorry. These are serious, if playful books. The thesis is that there are, in our society, a number of ritualized interaction, which he calls "games." The standard illustration is how we greet each other "hi, how are you?"/ "Fine, how are you?" A ritual, without any thought put into it unless the person being greeted has something particular in mind, in which case the interaction becomes an opening into a further conversation. Most "games" are structured so that there is a "winner" where one or more parties gains some sort of reward or self-satisfaction.

In this theory, there are healthy games, with a positive outcome, neutral games that are strictly formalities and negative games that can be destructive. Most of my posts will be about destructive games because these are the ones we most need to be alert to. When a game is in progress and we recognize it we can break the game and keep it from reaching its destructive outcome.

As youth workers, we need to recognize that sometimes we are the one initiating or enjoying the game, which is all the more reason to identify the game and makes sure it isn't destructive.

I will not provide a complete write up of the games from the book. These are the ones that were particularly significant for me. Some of these I made up or modified to fit.