Reacting to the Past: Week One

Last week was my first experience with running a Reacting to the Past game.  After a week and a half of preparation, it was time to trust in the system and let my students loose on the material to see what would happen. And it was so great!

Day one was introductions, to ease everyone into the idea of playing a role.  All the students were asked to do was to research their character so they could each give a short introduction to the class.  While a few students are playing historical characters like the industrial reformer Robert Owen and the inventor and capitalist Richard Arkwright, most were assigned types rather than specific people: weaver, blacksmith, magistrate. The roles are pretty generic, but many of the students weren't satisfied with that.  Nearly everyone has chosen a character name. One student decided he was an immigrant from Ireland and did his entire introduction with his best Irish accent.  Another (a quiet girl who rarely speaks in class) decided she was an orphan now sixteen years old, newly released from the workhouse and ready to fight for the rights of the child laborers.  Several came in costume, including one determined student who did extra research to convince me that a baronet's widow might run his estates after his death.  When she arrived in class in a full 19th-century gown, I understood why she was so determined to play a "Lady Farmer" instead of the "Gentleman Farmer" as written.

As the introductions proceeded, the working class grew lively, applauding those who expressed sympathy for the factory workers and hissing the gentry and merchants, who largely maintained a haughty calm.  As soon as the introductions were over, the class exploded into clusters of conversation as merchants bargained

with the gentry to rent land for factories, the vicars and newspaper editors solicited souls and submissions

respectively, and the weavers withdrew to the local pub, The Whorl and Spindle, (the classroom next door) to plot their strategies.  They were tasked with developing a proposal for establishing a minimum wage and

arguing for it at the Town Hall the following class period. In both classes (Tuesday/Thursday day and Tuesday night), the weavers were fired up and ready to fight for their rights and a living wage.  But while the night class had faith that their cause would prevail via legal means, the day class weavers are more bloody-minded.  I suspect Ned Ludd will ride in Manchester before too long.

The second class period of the week was held at the Town Hall, presided over by His Honor the Magistrate. As usual, I found it hard to keep my mouth shut, but I really tried, letting the magistrate run the show, organize and regulate the speeches and determine the rules of the debate.  And they didn't need me at all. It was obvious that most of the students had done their research, bringing up events, laws and statistics that highlighted the misery of the weavers' life or (from the merchants) the promise of industrial production.  The arguments were passionate and the concessions hard-fought. Both sets of weavers won a pay raise, though not nearly what they were requesting.  How will this affect production?  Only time (and the game master) can tell...

So the energy in the class is really high and everyone is "playing along."  My concern that my students would be too cool to commit to role-playing have been allayed. I'd seen the videos from the Reacting to the Past Consortium, chatted with other professors in the RTTP Faculty Lounge on Facebook, and even played a game myself at last January's conference. I knew the games COULD work.  But it's a relief to see it working before my own eyes, with my own students.  More than a relief, actually. I was euphoric as each class ended last week. It was so much fun to see my students so engaged and passionate about class.  About nineteenth century economic and social strife, no less!  That beats a lecture, any day!