Beginners learned how to establish parallels, by means of the Game’s symbols, between a piece of classical music and the formula for some law of nature. Experts and Masters of the Game freely wove the initial theme into unlimited combinations.
― Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
The Buckminster Game is an English-speaking, educational enrichment and adventure programme for teenagers from all over the world. The duration of the programme spans over nine consecutive months, consisting of weekly online sessions on Saturdays (1,5h) and three short residential periods in Bruges, Belgium (3-5 days each).
The educational objective of the programme is to equip our Players with a set of mental models, emotional capabilities and attitudes, cognitive habits, social skills, and intellectual foundations that will prepare them for individuation and thriving in the complex, uncertain, and open-ended reality. The programme is particularly beneficial for fast and challenging learners: for young people whose unique learning styles and interests demand interdisciplinary big-picture thinking and require a psychologically savvy holding environment. To learn more about our underlying philosophy and approach, please see the Buckminster Concept page.
Unravel the mystery of the ravens’ forgotten visit to Bruges (or were they ravens at all?), while learning some cartography, mythology, art history, astronomy, science-fiction, psychology, martial arts, dance, economy, graphic design, animation, poetry, acting, coding, cryptography, and philosophy on the way!
Ready to be challenged? Enter the Game!
Your first task begins immediately, even before you officially sign up*.
Please, take your time to express as clearly and beautifully as you can your personal response to the following question: What should have been (but wasn’t) in the message that Erica received?
Once your response is ready, the task is not over yet. Now, we need you to learn some cryptography and encrypt your letter in a way that it cannot be read without your encryption key. Do not use any existing code, like the Morse Code, for example. No. You must invent your own!
Ready? Now prepare two separate files:
The Buckminster Game is a continuous, open-ended reality: newcomers are joining always somewhere in the middle, like life. What has happened before remains in the memory of those who have been there earlier, so it is always a good idea for the new Players to try and investigate what the previous cohorts of Players have already found out.
New cohorts of Players join the Game three times during the year: in March, September, and November, each forming a new small community, virtually ‘housed’ together. The social structure of the Game, with each cohort working together while cultivating relationships with those located elsewhere, provides a rich social scene for experiential learning about group processes and dynamics. The Game is designed such that it repetitively brings to everyone’s conscious reflection the socio-emotional puzzle: how each of us can become increasingly masterful in the art of living as a unique individual, as a member of a small group, and as a player in a larger complex structure… simultaneously?
The current social structure of the Game includes:
There are three admission criteria for joining the Game at the House of the Perennial Red in 2022:
The dates of the (optional) residential sessions in Bruges may happen to coincide with the regular school days of many Players who are not based in Belgium. Whenever this is the case and an arrangement with the school is necessary, the Buckminster College will issue a letter for the school, requesting that an individual adjustment of the school duty is implemented so that the student can be excused from school for the periods of the residential sessions in Bruges, due to their participation in the educational acceleration and enrichment programme of the Buckminster College.
The entire duration of the enrollment in the Game consists of:
— weekly online sessions at the Buckminster’s Flying Castle (browser-based): Saturdays, 11am-12:30pm CET, from 13 November 2021 to 25 June 2022 29 October 2022*,
— three individual coaching sessions of 20-30 minutes each (online),
— and optional residential sessions in Bruges, Belgium:
*The duration of this trajectory has been extended from 9 to 12 months due to the COVID cancellation in March 2022.
— weekly online sessions at the Buckminster’s Flying Castle (browser-based): Saturdays, 11am-12:30pm CET, from 12 March 2022 to 11 February 2023*,
— three individual coaching sessions of 20-30 minutes each (online),
— and optional residential sessions in Bruges, Belgium:
*The duration of this trajectory has been extended from 9 to 12 months due to the COVID cancellation in March 2022.
— weekly online sessions at the Buckminster’s Flying Castle (browser-based): Saturdays, 11am-12:30pm CET, from 3 September 2022 to 21 June 2023,
— three individual coaching sessions of 20-30 minutes each (online),
— and optional residential sessions in Bruges, Belgium:
The Buckminster College offers a 20% reduction of the bundle fee(s) for each sibling who is participating in the Game at the same time. The discount applies to the bundle fee(s) for the residential sessions in Bruges in which the siblings participate simultaneously, either in the same of a different House. The siblings discount is not applicable to the Enrollment fee.