A Game That's More Than a Game at a School That's Not a School

by Joshua Wachtel

North Star Self-Directed Learning for Teens is not your typical school. In fact, as Director Ken Danford insists to anyone who begs to differ, "It's not a school!!"

North Star's motto is: "Learning is natural. School is optional." Staff operate on the premise that, "We make possible, but we don't 'make sure'." Suffice it to say, North Star kids have a lot of freedom!

I am a teacher and advisor at North Star, and for several years I have worked alongside work-study volunteer, Ben Marien. Ben is a political science student at neighboring University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is a good chess player and a member of the UMass Chess Club. So, when I learned of the game Quaternity last year, I immediately shared with him my discovery. The moment he saw the board and the pieces, he decided to learn the rules and recruit kids to play. Within a month we had a board, a rule book, and a weekly spot in North Star's Common Room.

Throughout the course of the year Ben and I drummed up participation for a game nearly every week. We taught Quaternity according to the International Rules to about a dozen students. From our experience, I would like to share a few very general and personal observations:

First, Quaternity is fun! Ben and I looked forward to the game week after week. Kids wanted to learn and play. Some were thwarted from playing more due only to prior commitments. Others loved standing around and watching. And Director Ken Danford loved telling prospective students, families, and anyone else who showed any interest in the center about the "crazy four-person Quaternity chess game where you play out of the corners."

Second, no Quaternity game is quite like another. Sometimes someone jumped out on the attack quick and paid the price. Other times people hung back to see how things would develop. Sometimes Ben would get aggressive and dominate with his superior chess knowledge. He eventually, more often than not, sat out and coached kids to make the games more evenly competitive. Yet later in the year when he joined in more games, some players successfully challenged him.

Third, the game builds community. It definitely brought me and Ben closer together as teachers as we strategized week to week how we could set things up for a successful game. This community building feature was also clear as we taught more and more kids at North Star the rules and had a larger and larger circle of players to draw from any given week.

Finally, the game has shown us how much we still have to learn! We saw in ourselves and among students that we were all developing theories of play. Quaternity allowed us to put our theories into practice, see what happened, and adapt again for next time.

Ben and I have scheduled Quaternity as a class for the 2026-2027 North Star year. We look forward to welcoming more players and growing our Quaternity community. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this short video which features images of Quaternity being played by North Star kids. This video was made by UMass-Amherst to commemorate an award they gave Ben for his wonderful service to the North Star Community.