Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.

Schools Using Grand Theft Auto to Teach Kids

This article is over 14 years old and may contain outdated information
image

Screenshots of Grand Theft Auto are taking the place of flashcards in UK schools.

Remember those flashcards you used in grade school to learn math or the alphabet? Today, a program making its way through UK schools is using screenshots of Grand Theft Auto instead to teach kids about the difference between right and wrong. Picking up prostitute off the street: right. Killing prostitute afterward: wrong?

The program is called Get Real and run by police and a charity called Support After Murder and Manslaughter (SAMM). It’s aimed at children ages 10 and 11 and also uses over-the-top clips of Itchy and Scratchy from the Simpsons. The whole point is to get children to realize what’s real and what’s not, and to hopefully deter them from violence and aggressive behavior at a young age.

During the Get Real program, children are shown images from Grand Theft Auto and such and then given real-life images of drunks or arguing parents. Supposedly, the program brings an element of realism to the violence often glamorized by games like GTA and emphasizes the seriousness of violence outside of videogames and other media.

A government member said of Get Real: “Almost any media can be edited to be educational and if the material already attracts children’s interest, it can have a greater impact on them. This may well be depicting knife-using car thieves as the selfish morons that they are – which of course we would welcome.”

I like the idea of this program primarily because it isn’t another example of parents and teachers putting on the blinders and pretending like kids aren’t already playing Grand Theft Auto for 8 hours a day, every day, after they finish beating up their classmates and robbing old women. It does seem like it’s modeled to counteract violence used in videogames and other forms of entertainment, and not to get on the Jack Thompson train or anything, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing to specifically say to kids that Grand Theft Auto is nothing like real life and to prove why.

Source: BBC via 1up

Recommended Videos

The Escapist is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy