Informed Reader
May 4, 2007; Page B6
EDUCATION
Chess Teaches Kids Skills, But Not the Ones Claimed
• SLATE — MAY 2
Chess fosters some remarkable skills in children, but one journalist who specializes in education says the sport’s intellectual benefits to kids are overrated.
Chess is well into its latest wave of popularity among American children. During the previous craze, many students hoped to emulate Bobby Fischer, who in 1958 became at age 14 the youngest U.S. champion in history. Once the career of the flashy but highly eccentric Mr. Fischer faded in the 1970s, so did chess and chess clubs. More than a decade later, parents and educators succeeded in returning chess to schools, believing that it imparted skills that would help kids later in life. “By the late 1980s,” writes Ann Hulbert, “chess had acquired cachet as a cutting-edge youthful extracurricular pursuit.”
But Ms. Hulbert, who has written widely about children’s development, takes issue with those who tout chess as a key to classroom success, linking it with better reading scores, problem-solving skills and critical thinking. Instead, she says, recent studies suggest that the memorization of chess positions that all top players rely on doesn’t translate well to other areas. Chess’s complexity also can draw an obsessive personality away from other school pursuits, including classes. Star chess players aren’t necessarily standout students.
Instead, Ms. Hulbert says chess’s benefits for students are more mundane. Chess encourages kids to do “the hard work of honing basic skills and then discovering their own styles” — a rare combination of fostering freedom amid rigorous standards and rules. Plus, chess is one of the few competitive school sports where the spirit of amateurism still reigns. No student goes into chess for the fame or money.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Do you agree with the author?
I suspect Ms. Hulbert is right about everything except her assumption that the skills learned and the value are the same for all students… sure, some become obsessed with chess (or poker, basketball, girls, boys, etc) at the expense of other studies, and the memorization by *top* players isn’t necessarily a skill applied directly elsewhere… but that doesn’t mean a lot of people who are not top players nor obsessed don’t benefit in many other, less provocative ways.
In todays age of continuous partial attention and constant multi-tasking, I also find it hard not believe that the concentration involved in a real chess game is not beneficial in and of itself…
totally agree. more than one player has gone postal over the obsesive nature of chess
It hurts the cause of chess every time someone publishes one of those “chess makes kids smarter” articles; because it’s not true.
If you want kids to be good at X, have them participate in X, not in chess.
What is true is that chess should be as full-fledged a inter-High School team sport as tennis or baseball or football. Chess is far cheaper a team for any school to field – no travel required – play over the web (lots of schools have a few computers in the library nowadays).
Unlike tennis or baseball or football, inter-grade school team competitions are plausible, at the 5th-6th grade level and up.
or … “How Chess Imitates Life” or is it “How Life Imitates Chess” ??? i’m a little worried …
^^
PS: i admit – my name is Vohaul, i’m addicted to chess … btw – this is the standard phrase used by chess addicts in the circle of the “anonym-chess-off-colored” i use to visit fridays, saturdays and sundays – during the week – i’m here!
One may agree with the statement that the sport’s intellectual benefits to kids are overrated
But there are other sporting benefits of playing Chess and they are enough to encourage Chess in kids.
I agree with the last post. My daughter happens to love chess (at least this week) and is also a good student but I don’t necessarily know which came first. On the other hand, chess has taught her the value of perserverance, sportsmanship, problem solving and disciplined thinking (calculating the best move rather than guessing. Chess has given her a language to interact with children and adults from different countries, generations, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds as well as with disabilities. Yes, it is true, that chess has had its share of obsessive personalities and the emotional rollercoaster of wins and losses in tournament chess is not for everyone but, as someone pointed out on the Daily Dirt blog, for every Shawn Martinez (the Edward R. Murrow High School chess team member/truant who claimed in a New York Times article to be obsessed with chess), there are tens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of kids who are equally obsessed with video games.
The author, as many do, confuses the term “chess player” with the term “obsessive chess player”. Most kids play casually, and the benefits to them (patience, concentration, combined spatial and cognitive thinking) are undeniable. But some people just like winners. So be it.
I read Ms. Hulbert’s article on Slate. Here is the link that does not require a subscription.
http://www.slate.com/id/2165369/pagenum/all/#page_start
My take on it is that she concentrated on those who have been unbalanced or undisciplined in their enthusiasm for chess. It certainly can be an addictive hobby and passion, and I think her article is useful as a cautionary tale.
However, I think that chess is a useful tool for education. I’m a bit biased, I’ll admit. I researched and wrote this paper for a class a few years ago that I am proud of.
http://minnesotachess.org/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.4
If physical exercise is good for one’s body then so is metal workout good for one’s mind.
In contrast, if playing some kid of sports is good then chess is simply one kind of mind workout to sharpen one’s mind. Does it have to be chess? No, it does not, but we might also wonder why chess outasts all other board games invented along perhaps with chess but only chess continues to flourish worldwide after thousands of years?
Playing chess alone may not necessarily make a vhild a bit smarter in growth chart but when chess is combined into math then the effect is more significant.
Many people have tried to combine chess into math but only thing many could achieve is to teach chess and math in math class but still math and chess are taught as 2 subjects. This seemly unrelated teaching has had a breakthrough since a Canadian math techer Frank Ho created the world’s first math and chess intergrated workbook for elementary students in 90’s. In 2004 Mr. Frank Ho started to franchise his idea of teaching children math through chess and today Ho Math and Chess is the only education franchise dedicated to teaching children math using chess as a teaching tool.
Frank invented Symbolic Chess Language (SCL. patent in appliation) to link chess and math and it is believed he has found a key to unlock the mystery of how chess and math are related and because of this new discovery the teaching of math and chess has been brought to a new era.
It is no longer a question if chess makes a children smart, it is a question why so many children have not had the chance of study math in a fun and yet educational way.
More details can be found by visiting http://www.mathandchess.com.
I am just wondering how on earth is there a need to unlock math in chess alone when math can be found (or applied) in almost everthing…
poker, basketball, girls, boys..stock market..blackhole..etc. That is the whole beauty of learning math.And the impressionable child should be taught to appreciate its diversity.