I started out a few days ago asking Fred if he could help me come up with an updated version of his game, The Helping Hand Strikes Again, and he led me to a game by Sidney Sackson called Patterns. Here's a brief synopsis, based on Martin Gardner's treatment of the game in his column in Scientific American, November, 1969.

We've been discussing how this might work as a "Helping Hand" type of game, or maybe more interestingly, as a game about teaching. Here's a simple variation:

Each group has a "teacher" and "students." The teacher is given a pattern to start with, and must "teach" it to the students in the following way: The student fills in AT LEAST THREE cells and hand the paper to the teacher. The teacher then must correct the cells, and fill in AT LEAST THREE MORE cells. The student gets one point for each correct cell, minus one for each wrong cell, and cells filled in by the teacher don't count.

Now add another group of players -- call them "helpers," who are given the task of "improving the performance of the people in the room." The helpers may make observations and talk to the teachers, but they are not allowed to talk directly to the students. Needless to say, there is room for dissonance about what it means to "improve the performance of the people in the room," as well as the potential for the helpers to be more in the way than helpful.