Simple ways to do more cooperative gaming

I never really finished my other blog, but hey - why not start a new one? This is another idea I really want to get out of my head.

For a long time, I thought cooperative games were kind-of a sad shadow of competitive ones. Something you did to make sure everyone felt good, but weren't actually particularly challenging or inspiring. Also, not particularly fun. Then, I witnessed some cooperative games my daughter played in Girl Scouts. I thought - wow. These are actually fun AND they teach some really important life skills.

It occurred to me that children are taught something about the nature of the world through games. Competitive games make it seem like the point of it all is to "win" (win what?) as an individual. But there's no reason to think that "winning" can't mean making sure everyone in your group gains something in the process, including those who are weaker or slower. The best kind of cooperative games allows for a kind of creativity that lets people start to recognize the strengths that everyone can bring. Maybe that weaker or slower person is also smaller, which can be an advantage in certain situations.

It's not that I have any philosophical problem with doing things competitively, neither in the world in general nor in the microcosm of a board game. I DO have a problem with the idea that this is the only way things can be, when it clearly isn't. None of us can survive alone. Cooperation is the keystone to our existence - we started our lives utterly dependent and most of us will die in the same circumstance. Competition is useful in context, when it's inside a framing of an overall cooperative mindset.

So, given that cooperative games can be a good thing and CAN be fun, what's the best way to make them happen? Why not use what many of us already have - Candy Land, Scrabble, Monopoly, Pictionary? Board games that are sitting around gathering dust in our closets and storage containers!