When Sheep Lead to a City Council

The Minecraft City Council Building

As I was heading out to the grocery store, I stopped by my kids' room to see if they needed me to bring them anything. The trio was hanging out, all playing Minecraft together. They had already left me a list downstairs, and as I turned to go, my kids went on to tell me that they had created a City Council in their Minecraft world. Intrigued, and surprised by this, I sat down, grabbed my notes, and asked them to tell me more.

My kids, who all share a world, were in the habit of all doing their own thing. Each would build whatever they wanted to his/her taste. Each one would spawn new animals or other additions as they pleased. Eventually, they noticed that things were getting a bit chaotic, and that they needed a way to come to agreements on what they were and weren't allowed to do.

In a nutshell, the sheep made them do it! "The sheep kept eating all my grass!" said my middle daughter. "Yeah, and sometimes I would go outside my house and there would be random sheep tied to my fence" said my oldest, "and it would eat all my grass and anything else in sight!" She was tired of having to replant grass in order to make her yard look nice again.

I learned that in addition to the sheep, they also had a problem with random mobs that would approach their village. It turns out mobs are attracted to the darkness, and will even spawn in a house, or any other shelter, if there are no windows or sources of light.

So, my kids had a few challenges they needed to solve together. My middle child, whom I consider the household Minecraft Guru, decided that instead of just talking about it as they played, their characters would talk about it in the game itself. She suggested they hold a meeting to figure out how they would handle these problems. She quickly constructed a building with seats and a large podium at the front. My other kids helped and created a sign out front that read "Council". In no time, they were ready to have their first meeting!

They used their Minecraft characters to problem solve. Taking turns, one would approach the podium, bring up an issue, and the group would make suggestions and agree on a final solution.

Via their council meetings, they all agreed that no one would be allowed to spawn sheep. They also agreed to enforce building codes- by requiring everyone to add windows and lanterns outside their homes in order to stave off the scary mobs.

My youngest one, asked what would happen if he "accidentally" spawned a sheep or two. His question led to the discussion on how they would handle rule breakers in the land. From my understanding, the group agreed on jail time for this serious offense and soon after, a jail house was added to their village. 

I was super surprised that Minecraft created the perfect opportunity for my 7, 8 and 10 year old to encounter these types of social issues. Not only did they slowly begin to realize the concerns that can arise within a community, but most importantly they collaborated to figure out a way to problem solve democratically. Amazing!

What's notable here is that all of this play, learning and problem solving was unstructured. There was no lesson plan, no guidelines, no expectations. I think what resulted in this free play was something more meaningful than I could have planned for had I tried to structure it. Moments like today, reassured me that 20% time and/or Genius hour opportunities are critical in today's classrooms. I only hope that my children are given similar freedoms at school.

View from the Podium 

 Caro at the Podium

 Gaby at the Podium

 Meeting members listening to the speaker.

The Podium 

I think they have also added a Mayor...lol