Dreamer Series: Teacher
Common Sense says
- Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi
- $19.99
- 2009
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A lot or a little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that while the title Dreamer Series: Teacher sounds like a simulation game about being a teacher, the activities performed by the teacher in this game have absolutely nothing to do with education. Playing as a teacher, you child will get to "teach" nothing other than music and dance. Most of the rest of the time is spent either disciplining children or playing with them. Parents should also be aware that the game reinforces stereotypes that boys are misbehaved and girls are tattletales.
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What's it about?
In DREAMER SERIES: TEACHER, you play as a teacher who conducts her students in music class and demonstrates choreography for them in dance class. She also cuts out pictures for them, puts together jigsaw puzzles for them, jumps rope and plays hopscotch with them, plays them lullabies at nap time (even though they appear to be 7 or 8 years old), tends to their cuts and scrapes, gets them dressed, cleans up after them, scolds them as they try to cheat on tests, scolds them as they try to throw cake in her face, and catches dripping paint cans that the boys knock over with basketballs.
Is it any good?
The Dreamer Series is supposed to be a line of career sims for girls, but Teacher really misses the mark. No educating takes place in the game. As detailed above, the teacher's time is spent either playing with children, scolding them, or tending to their needs like a babysitter. While it's not necessarily a bad thing to include music and dance classes, it is a big negative to have those be the only classes. As this is a "girl game," it seems to say that those two subjects are the only ones girls would be interested in. The mini-games that make up the teacher's day tend go on for way too long -- 90 seconds can seem like an eternity when it's spent performing the same mundane motion over and over. And even if you are managing to enjoy those mini-games, the game ends after one five-day school week.
Talk to your kids about ...
Families can talk about the various missteps taken by the teacher in the game and discuss better choices she could have made. For instance, when a boy tells her his puzzle is too hard and asks her to do it for him, she complies. What would have been a better course of action? When the boys are throwing balls at paint buckets on the shelves, would it have been wiser for the teacher to put a stop to the bad behavior rather than just try to catch the falling paint?
The game offers families a good chance to discuss gender stereotypes. What stereotypical boy and girl behaviors are played out in the game? Do you think those stereotypes hold true in real life?
Game details
- Platforms: Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi
- Price: $19.99
- Available online? Not available online
- Developer: Dreamcatcher
- Release date: September 9, 2009
- Genre: Girl
- ESRB rating: E for no descriptors
- Last updated: November 11, 2020
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