Pokemon’s YouTube channel just launched a new documentary series called How Do You Play that highlights different kinds of Pokemon TCG players around the world. The first epiܫsode, ‘The Teacher’, explores the Children’s Community School in Van Nuys, California, where the faculty has spent ten years fostering and supporting a love for Pokemon cards amongst the students. If you grew up loving Pokemon cards as much as I did, this mini-doc is going to make you cry like a little baby.
“If it’s important and meaningful to children, it should not be ignored” are the first words spoken by head of school Azizi Williams at the film’s beginning. Williams took over the Children’s Co🐻mmunity Schꦦool in 2021 from her predecessor, Neal Wrightson. It was Wrightson who started the Pokeclub ten years prior, a weekly outdoor gathering where students from Kindergarten to fifth grade get together with their Pokemon binders to hang out, show off their latest finds, and make trades.
Watching those kids swap Pokemon cards wit🙈h so much enthusiasm reminded me so much of my own childhood. So much has chang🐽ed about the way children grow up today, and the older I get the more I worry I’m becoming completely disconnected from the next generation. But their love for Pokemon is just as pure and sincere as mine was at 12 years old, and watching them play brought back so many memories of grade school, friendships, and a love for Pokemon that I still have to this day.
But the kids of Children’s Community School are also having a very different experience with Pokemon than the one I, and most of you, probably had. Pokemon hit my school hard when I was in fourth grade, and for an entire semester it was the only thing any of us cared about. Everyone brought their binders to school so we could trade on the bus and during recess, and we even made some deals in class when the teacher wasn’t looking. Of course, there was conflict. Cards got stolen, kids got upset about unfair trades, and there were loud arguments. It only took one fight turning physical for my school to outright ban Pokemon cards permanently. No one ever brought Pokemon cards to school again, and pret🌼ty soon everyone stopped talking about them. If Pokemon cards were ever popular at your school, I’d be willing to bet something similar happened there too.
Pokemon cards caused behavioral problems at Children’s Community School too, but Wrightson decided to address it in a different way. He recognized the potential that Pokemon cards had for teaching his students about conflict resolution while also promoting community and cooperation, so he made a place for Pokemon at the school, and made himself part of it. When Williams took over a decade later, she continued the tradition b𝓰ecause she understood sharing an interest with her students gave her a way to connect with them on a deeper level. Through Pokeclub, she’s able to guide the kids as they learn how to negotiate and discover their personal value systems, while building a bond with her students through their mutual appreciation for Pokemon.
I’m still a Pokemon card collector today because it’s part of my job, but it’s something I had left behind when I was still a kid. After cards were banned at school, most kids moved on✨ from trading and collecting cards. Instead of treating the Pokemon craze as an opportunity the way Wrightson and Williams did, the adults around me decided it was a distra🅠ction and shut it down. I can’t help but wonder how many of the kids I grew up with would still have a passion for Pokemon if grown ups around us had been more like the teachers at Children’s Community School.
Children’s Community School is a small, private elementary school in the Valley of LA, so I’m not surprised that the faculty is more progressive and concerned about the wellbeing of children than the public school in the Midwest I was warehoused in during the ‘90s. I wish my school had cared about me the way Williams cares about her students, but more than that, I’m moved by the joy those kids are getting from Pokemon cards. The experiences they’re having and the lessons they’re learning now are going to st🌸ay with them for the rest of their lives, and it’s beautiful to see the adults around them supporting and nurturing that passion. As a Pokemon kid myself, it’s incredible to see Pokemon fully embraced by a community.