MC incorporates Block Blast into school curriculum to increase engagement

Block Blast: everyone has been playing it, from your mother to your grandmother and perhaps even to you. With its easy to understand mechanics and addictive gameplay, this game has stolen the hearts of the Mount Carmel student body. However, the latter reason has created a great dilemma: students are giving more care and attention to clearing lines of colorful squares than algebra and Shakespeare, and grades and participation have taken a steep drop schoolwide. In hopes of stopping the rapid decline and rebecoming the academic powerhouse MC used to be, the administration has made a schoolwide mandate: Block Blast must be incorporated into daily lessons. 

Following this mandate, teachers’ curricula have been altered drastically due to its requirements. All teachers are now required to relate Block Blast to lessons for the entire period. For example, Mr. Caribee Collier’s AP Physics class has been changed to only be about the numbers of forces involved in the beloved puzzle game, and Mr. Dominic Scheuring’s Theology 3 class has been learning about determinism in the same manner. Despite initial bouts of skepticism from certain faculty, this policy has had a great positive impact on learning, creating a very noticeable change in the attitudes, participation, and grades of students. 

“At first, everything at this school made no sense and was overall just way, way too boring.” sophomore Myles Hankton stated. “I mean, why should I care about learning about mental health when doing so doesn’t tickle my brain the way a juicy combo does? Oh, sweet! Four piece!”

The numbers tell a similar story. Six weeks following the mandate, the average grade from students has risen from a 82.46% to a solid 88.89%in that short of a time. Additionally, according to a survey, 94% of students feel satisfied and engaged with their day-to-day school life following the change in policy, a stark contrast from the 39% observed prior. Based purely on statistics, this experiment has been a great success.

However, several teachers have expressed their dissatisfaction with this geometric decree. They have gone on record, stating that the forced incorporation of Block Blast may look promising on the surface, but will ultimately be more detrimental than beneficial for students in the long run.

“These flashy numbers don’t tell the whole story,” English teacher Mr. Haggerty claims. He adds, “The kids’ attention spans have deteriorated at a rapid rate. They can’t go thirty seconds without needing the instant rush of a cleared row. It is genuinely terrifying to think that we at Mount Carmel are content with cultivating our students in a way that leaves them as dopamine addicted zombies instead of the hard-working and passionate leaders we promised them the moment they walked through the school gates. I fear for the future of not only this school, but the world in its entirety as it grows more and more reliant on instant gratification supplied through a handheld electric box instead of real, fulfilling life experiences.”

As of now, this Block Blast mandate has been nothing but a massive success in students’ minds, using trends among the student body to better connect with them through lessons. Due to this success, ideas for more Block Blast related changes have been thrown around. These include, but are not limited to, theming all food from the cafeteria to the beloved blocks, introducing an Honors Block Blast class, or transforming the decades-old school logo to the 2x2 block piece.  

Mount Carmel education is centered around teaching to the male brain; the school prides itself on this very fact. But perhaps now is the time to fully commit not to a curriculum based on the minds of men, but to the minds of Block Blast players.

“I love Block Blast!” Hankton says vehemently. “I would rather die than stop playing Block Blast! Block Blast is life; it is love! Three cheers for Block Blast–oh, sweet! Four piece!”