Backgammon in Education? Yes, It Works If Taught With Creativity

Teachers in elementary, middle, junior high or high schools often look for ways to keep students' interest, and that sometimes means they will creatively mix a game into the lesson to teach or reinforce a skill in their subject arena. That includes board games, and that includes our favorite board game, backgammon.

On a purely amateur level, backgammon can be an excellent teaching tool for math, history, geography, science, and other subjects. Not to mention giving pupils lessons in cognitive thinking, good sportsmanship, and problem solving.

Math is the most obvious, since you can give lessons in probability (odds of dice number combinations), basic addition and subtraction (moving the pieces or checkers), even geometry with the board layout design. But creative teachers can easily hook students in history with the history of the sport, in geography with lessons on what countries or regions the game is most popular in (not to mention where the game originated), and in science on how gravity affects dice rolling at different heights (okay, that's a stretch, but we've seen it done). Getting a student engaged in a board game like backgammon can also pull an introverted child into a more social atmosphere and build self-esteem with careful coaching and encouragement.

Backgammon, of course, teaches basics in strategy and good game play and sportsmanship. It's an inexpensive way to add spice to a teacher's style or instructional method, and who would not want to spread the joy of backgammon on to younger generations?