Adding chess to the school curriculum

[Martin Gill]

I thought I'd take advantage of the new government e-petition thing and start a petition to add chess to the school curriculum. If we want to serious improve chess in this country, then dramatically increasing the number of children who play is no bad thing. It worked for Russia!

Please sign here:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15863

Also I know George Osborne, for one, is a chess fan. He has talked about following Kasparov & Karpov in interviews.

Martin

[Michael Jones]

I posted a similar petition a few years ago, which IIRC gained 14 signatures in the year it was open!

[PeterTurland]

Well I very much agree with chess being on the curriculum, evidence here http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/930/0009711.pdf but when I went to the voting website and it asked me for far too much detail, such as my home address for instance, I smelt a rat. Also the captcha was daunting.

My daughter is a teacher and if chess can help her make the next generation wiser, I vote for it.

[David Robertson]

My daughter is a teacher and if chess can help her make the next generation wiser, I vote for it.

It can't

[PeterTurland]

Oh sorry, I did not know you knew everything.

[Richard James]

A few questions:

If you put chess on the curriculum in all schools, who is going to teach it? Are you going to use professional chess teachers? If so, how are you going to find enough of them? If you are going to use existing school teachers, who is going to train them? Which teaching materials do you propose to use? Do you agree that teaching is only successful when the teacher is passionate about and committed to the subject he or she is teaching? If so, what makes you think that every school in the country, particularly every primary school in the country, has at least one member of staff who is passionate about and committed to chess?

Where are you going to get the equipment from? Who is going to pay for it? (Free Chess Sets for Schools? Ha!) How are you going to feed players through into tournaments? Who is going to run the tournaments? Where are they going to take place? Are there junior chess clubs in every area so that players who want to take the game further can do so? If not, do you think it’s appropriate that 7-year-olds should be encouraged to join their local chess club which meets from 7:30 to 11:00 in the evening in a room above a pub?

Are you going to put chess on the curriculum in Primary Schools, Secondary Schools or both? For how many years will children study chess? What will it replace on the current National Curriculum? What will you do about schools that refuse to take part?

Do you consider putting chess on the curriculum more important than ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn to play at least one musical instrument, join an orchestra and sing in a choir? Are you aware, for example, of the success of El Sistema in Venezuela? Do you think putting chess on the curriculum is more important than ensuring that every child has the opportunity to sample a wide range of different sports? Do you think putting chess on the curriculum is more important than giving every child the opportunity to try out a wide range of creative and artistic pursuits?

I’m passionate about chess, about its potential for a wide range of educational and social benefits, and most of all about its ability to change and even save lives. That’s why I’ve spent much of the past 40 years teaching, organising, promoting, writing and programming chess for children.

But I don’t believe for a moment that, at least in this country, putting chess on the curriculum is the right way forward. And as, realistically, it’s never going to happen anyway, campaigning for chess to be put on the curriculum is a waste of time and effort.

[John Upham]

Richard,

Could you brief this place (OK, delusions of grandeur) on which countries currently or have had chess on the primary and/or secondary curriculum?

I assume this is known and documented?

[Richard James]

Richard,

Could you brief this place (OK, delusions of grandeur) on which countries currently or have had chess on the primary and/or secondary curriculum?

I assume this is known and documented?

Not easily. There have been various claims that chess was going to be on the curriculum in various places, but what actually happened and with what outcome is not, to the best of my knowledge, available in one convenient place.

[Arshad Ali]

But I don’t believe for a moment that, at least in this country, putting chess on the curriculum is the right way forward. And as, realistically, it’s never going to happen anyway, campaigning for chess to be put on the curriculum is a waste of time and effort.

Agreed. If schools can just teach the three Rs, they've accomplished a great deal. Just idealistically adding on more subjects when the funds, organisation, and coaches don't exist just seems an exercise in futility.

[JustinHorton]

Do you consider putting chess on the curriculum more important than ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn to play at least one musical instrument, join an orchestra and sing in a choir?

Quite.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I don’t believe for a moment that, at least in this country, putting chess on the curriculum is the right way forward.

End of debate.

[David Shepherd]

Maybe though there could be some case for arguing that it could be part of the sports/PE curriculum. Would it really be so bad if children did a half term of chess/board/card games at some point in their school careers, possibly as an option.

[PeterTurland]

Children learn to speak their mother tongue with an almost miraculous ease, learning to read, write and calculate does not come automatically.

Learning to read and write is extremely complicated, with 26 letters in the alphabet and enormously complicated and sometimes irrational rules of spelling and grammar to learn, and it is just the same with mathematics.

What chess does is introduces the young mind to complexity. On the surface, chess is simpler than the 'three rs' with only 64 squares and 6 different piece movement rules. By teaching complexity you make it easier to teach the other things, teaching semiotics first, eases the teaching of formal semantics.

My daughter did introduce some of her pupils to chess in the dinner break, what surprised her, was how quiet they became.

The proof that chess works as a subject on the curriculum, is here.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/930/0009711.pdf

I suspect the real reason chess is not on the curriculum for state schools, is the people who benefit from the current status quo, don't want educated working class kids. The evidence for this is the amount of promotion chess gets, in private educational establishments.

[Martin Gill]

Well I very much agree with chess being on the curriculum, evidence here http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/930/0009711.pdf but when I went to the voting website and it asked me for far too much detail, such as my home address for instance, I smelt a rat. Also the captcha was daunting.

No, that really is the official government site ... they just ask for all that stuff to make sure you are legitimate when signing. It's a government site, after all

If you are not convinced, then google for the official epetition site, and then just search it for chess in schools.

Martin

[Martin Gill]

A few questions:

A few questions!?! Richard, you have obviously been thinking seriously about this for some time.

If you put chess on the curriculum in all schools, who is going to teach it? Are you going to use professional chess teachers? If so, how are you going to find enough of them? If you are going to use existing school teachers, who is going to train them? Which teaching materials do you propose to use? Do you agree that teaching is only successful when the teacher is passionate about and committed to the subject he or she is teaching? If so, what makes you think that every school in the country, particularly every primary school in the country, has at least one member of staff who is passionate about and committed to chess?

This applies to any subject. I agree they are valid questions, but ones you would have to answer for any change to the curriculum.

Where are you going to get the equipment from? Who is going to pay for it? (Free Chess Sets for Schools? Ha!) How are you going to feed players through into tournaments? Who is going to run the tournaments? Where are they going to take place? Are there junior chess clubs in every area so that players who want to take the game further can do so? If not, do you think it’s appropriate that 7-year-olds should be encouraged to join their local chess club which meets from 7:30 to 11:00 in the evening in a room above a pub?

If it is adopted into the curriculum then these things will change. There will be equipment. And with a lot more people playing then clubs will naturally expand. Clubs will have more members and be much better attended, so they won't have to hide in that free room above a pub on a Monday evening.

Are you going to put chess on the curriculum in Primary Schools, Secondary Schools or both? For how many years will children study chess? What will it replace on the current National Curriculum? What will you do about schools that refuse to take part?

Do you consider putting chess on the curriculum more important than ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn to play at least one musical instrument, join an orchestra and sing in a choir? Are you aware, for example, of the success of El Sistema in Venezuela? Do you think putting chess on the curriculum is more important than ensuring that every child has the opportunity to sample a wide range of different sports? Do you think putting chess on the curriculum is more important than giving every child the opportunity to try out a wide range of creative and artistic pursuits

Well, from a personal perspective I'd say yes - from primary school and replacing such things. I enjoyed, and benefited from chess more than from my music lessons. But to be realistic, no. Why pit it agains music and sports? Do I think chess would be a good alternative to media arts and leisure & tourism at secondary school? Yes.

To quote the Scottish study linked on this page:
"It was the chess coaching input - a social relationship forged with teachers, parents
and pupils - that acted as a catalyst for educational development. This new form of
social capital became the source of improved attainment. Chess-play and the teaching
of chess became inseparable in this social relationship that negated low expectations
and difficult behaviour."

I'm in favour of educational development, improved attainment and negating low expecations and difficult behaviour.

I’m passionate about chess, about its potential for a wide range of educational and social benefits, and most of all about its ability to change and even save lives. That’s why I’ve spent much of the past 40 years teaching, organising, promoting, writing and programming chess for children.

But I don’t believe for a moment that, at least in this country, putting chess on the curriculum is the right way forward. And as, realistically, it’s never going to happen anyway, campaigning for chess to be put on the curriculum is a waste of time and effort.

Well, it won't happen if no-one asks for it Also, the time and effort involved in submitting a new epetition and posting something here was minimal. It has 20 signatures already, only from yesterday. A realistic goal, I think, would be to get it on the top four pages of petitions. So it would have to have more than 1,227 votes to beat "refund on high bank charges".

Martin