The Irascible ProfessorSM
by Dr. Mark H. Shapiro
Commentary of the Day - April 16, 2012: Chess - Only a Pawn in the Game. Guest commentary by Beverly C. Lucey.
During March and
April, the real March Madness starts in public
schools.
In these two months, most students are subjected
to standardized testing which starts in third
grade, and continues throughout high school.
They learn these tests matter. A lot.
They learn that scores might appear in their
Permanent Record.
They learn that their school and even their
teachers' career may depend on how the student
performs.
They learn that grapes, string cheese, and
granola bars will be provided as a motivator and
a brain booster.
They learn about the clear importance of #2
pencils in the general scheme of things.
Full Disclosure forces me to note that I am a
Standardized Test Skeptic.
What I believe students learn is that
a. there's always a right answer.
b. one kind of test method sums up their
abilities
c. sitting for a long time bubbling in circles
hurts the backside.
Students are often used for guinea pigs for the
allegedly bright ideas of consultants who may
never have taught, and were themselves in the
top percentile in high performing schools with
parents who pushed, hectored, and helicoptered
them into success. They do not know the rest of
the student body from the neck down.
What's one more bright idea going to hurt?
Proposal: Chess
Schools have cut electives drastically in
schools. In the frenzy of both budget
cuts and the added costs to schools for the
products of testing companies, schools have lost
music, art, dance, theater, photography,
citizenship and whatever home economics is being
called now. Anything resembling a
vocational course has been moved far away to a
different school where 'other kinds of students'
go.
Computers, text books, and sports equipment are
all big ticket items.
I've seen chess sets for five bucks in a local
wholesale store.
And I'm convinced that students who learn chess
will learn a lot more than the game.
Some research, as far back as 1925, has shown
that concentration improves once the basic moves
are mastered. Students could gain not just a
better visual memory, but an ability to see the
whole picture. How many students insist they
are 'visual learners.' (They've been tested.)
Their sense of logic and predictability would
develop, all in the spirit of genteel
competition. Memory improvement could also be a
benefit and spill over into other aspects of
student life, such as where they left their
jacket, and whether their term paper is due in a
week.
In 2000 an Australian researcher at the
University of Sydney produced a
sweeping assessment of both the variety of
skills and variety of student learners, who
learned chess.
An article and video based on an NBC feature in
2010 backs up some of my observations and
predictions.
A podcast on NPR reveals that
Armenia’s public schools started mandatory chess
classes for every second, third and fourth
grader" in 2011.
"Twice a week, 7- to 10-year-old Armenians are
getting 30 minutes of instruction in chess
basics. The goal is they are able to play
a competent game by the end of fourth grade."
(PRI)
When I taught high school, our English
department offered a chess elective due to the
availability and expertise of a colleague. The
instructor would start each block period with a
lesson or group problem-solving setup. The rest
of the class time would be spent playing chess.
Mr. G would move about the class, watching,
encouraging, figuring out how to create fair
opposition in future classes.
According to Mr. G, magic happened. First, he
noted, while the boys who signed up initially
were already players, the Guidance Department
started using the elective as a "dumping ground"
the way they used my theater workshop class.
Anyone with a hole in a schedule got placed in
an English elective. Students turned up on
my theater roster who had no idea they'd have to
appear on a stage. Reading for Pleasure, a
silent comfortable reading room, became filled
with malcontents for whom the title of the
course was an oxymoron, and chaos broke out.
But not in Chess Class.
Second, he said, boys who were known as restless
disrupters in other people's classes were
somehow soothed or mesmerized by the demands of
a match and the reality of immediate feedback
for every move they made. Music played softly
in the background and student music providers
took their role seriously. This was, after all,
Chess.
Third, they policed each other. "Shhhhhh. No
loud talk in Chess." "Hey, no trash talk.
This is Chess." "Whoah. Stop. What if they
cancel Chess because of you?"
At first, mostly boys signed up. Girls stepped
up after a couple of years. Clique related
barriers came down. Athletes played with
clarinetists. Honor students played with
allegedly limited outcasts. People became
mannerly, generous in spirit, and open to mixing
it up, if they had not been this way before.
As a result of my general
grumpiness regarding the time spent teaching to
the test and high stakes testing itself -- which
leads to pay for performance dumped on teachers
who have little control over their often fluid,
morphing classes -- I'm suggesting.....add
chess.
What I would love to see in schools everywhere:
parents who do not want their students to be
taking these tests every year, being able to opt
out for an alternative --namely; chess. From
third grade through high school, each year
parents or students would be given the choice.
Students would, of course, take all the other
requirements needed for a diploma, but they
would have an exit exam designed for their
curriculum by town, county, or state
standards. I want to see if there is a
statistical difference between the two groups.
I'm betting on chess to impart some critical
skills that cannot be calculated by standardized
tests and the companies who make big bucks off
supplying them, at the expense of salary
increases and budget increases.
I'm not sure at all that educational reformers
understand The Big Picture. A dedicated chess
player, just might.
What I am also not sure of is
whether
chess boxing might
make some sense too.
© 2012, Beverly C. Lucey.
______________________________________________________
Beverly C. Lucey cannot seem
to leave the classroom. She is now an adjunct
professor of writing at Westfield State University
in Massachusetts and considers herself a life-long
educator.
The Irascible Professor comments: (Full disclosure, the IP usually plays a daily game of chess against his computer to keep his mind sharp, well at least as sharp as it can be at his advanced age.) Chess sounds like a great idea for school kids, and "chess boxing" might be a good idea for the rowdier kids provided that the liability issues could be solved.
The
Irascible Professor
invites your
.