The Global Game Academy

In-person instruction is the best. But it may be some time before we can safely get back to in-person instruction. In the meantime, parents, teachers, and administrators all across the country are asking themselves one critical question: How can I best — in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner — supplement my child or student’s learning and intellectual development in these very unsettling and challenging times? We believe that in this New Era, perhaps the best solution is to go back to Old School learning. We believe that in years past — in our very lifetimes — more people learned how to love reading, become an interesting conversationalist, and develop a thirst for knowledge and an interest in the world around them by reading the newspaper every day and discussing current events than perhaps through any other method. And we are pleased to be able to offer an updated version of that age old proven method to your child, right now.

Student-Citizens of The Global Game Academy will gain a keen and in-depth understanding of politics, economics, business, finance, science and world affairs — what we call “The Global Game” — through immersion in current affairs by reading the New York Times and Wall Street Journal every day and then engaging in two 45- minute guided interactive discussions of the material per week. [Each paper is available in its online version to students for a subscription rate of $4 per month.]

Every morning each student-citizen will receive an e-mail giving them a list of at least 5 recommended articles to read in each paper (at least 3 articles in each paper will be mandatory).

Instructor Geoff Gibbs will guide the discussion and provide instruction and learning points in each subject area, each Global Game Academy student-citizen will have the opportunity to actively participate and debate and discuss the topics with the entire group. We expect the discussions and exchanges to be lively and informative.

Geoffrey Taylor Gibbs grew up in Palo Alto, California, the son of a Stanford University professor and a UC Berkeley professor, and attended Gunn High School, where he graduated as a National Merit Scholar. He has his A.B. in Economics (magna cum laude) from Harvard University and his M.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. A practicing lawyer, he has his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and also an MBA from UCLA. In addition to working in global business development in every major market in the world for both Boeing and The Walt Disney Company, he has served as an aide to former Vice President Joe Biden and former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley- Braun, among other political and governmental positions. While at UC Berkeley, he was a graduate assistant instructor in Subject A, the University of California’s mandatory freshman expository writing course. He has also been both a general assignment reporter and had op-ed pieces published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Since 2015, he has been the coach and program director of the Golden State Gladiators, one of the top AAU youth basketball programs in California. Geoff brings an insatiable curiosity about the world around him and a passion for learning and mentoring young people to everything he does. He is the father to 13 year-old Julian and 8 year-old Rico, both of whom will be distance learning to start this school year.