The Oregon Trail CD-ROM Critique

Bill Bigelow’s “On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of the Oregon Trail CD-ROM” was a really interesting article. In this game, students become members of families and wagon trains crossing the Plains in the 1840s or 1850s on the way to the Oregon Territory. The objective of the game is to safely reach the Oregon Territory with one’s family, thereby “increasing one’s options for economic success.” This critique suggests however, that as for as much as the game teaches, it mis-teaches more. Bigelow claims The Oregon Trail to be “sexist, racist, culturally insensitive, and contemptuous of the earth.” Just as well, he claims that the game imparts bad values and wrong history.

I remember playing this game back in elementary school. I never thought about how the game I was playing might be misrepresenting women of the time or how it may racist towards African Americans and Mexicans or how it left out the violent happenings between the settlers and Indians. These ideas don’t cross a sixth graders mind. I always had fun playing it and I don’t feel that it was as harmful as this article makes it sound. The times might not be represented fully accurately in this game, but what teacher would allow their children to play a game that is full of violence, hostility, disrespect and degradation towards women, African-Americans, Mexicans and Indians? The article makes a good point though, “we need to remember that CD-ROMs are not teacher substitutes.” The teacher needs to fill the gaps and present the missing information to her students so that they get an accurate idea of how the time was. In the same respect, we must analyze and critique the games we allow our students to play so that we can make sure they are of value in an educational setting. The article presents some wonderful questions for teachers to think about and discuss with their students. “Which social groups are students not invited to identify with in the simulation? How might these social groups frame problems differently than the simulation? What were the social and environmental consequences for the time period following the time represented in the simulation?” I think these are excellent discussion questions that should be considered and talked about.