Chess program teaches math, confidence
Medical technician’s initiative wins honors, praise from educators
By EDWARD L. KENNEY, The News Journal
Posted Sunday, April 8, 2007
Lakeysha Skinner didn’t even know how to play chess when she learned she could use the ancient game to help children tackle arithmetic.
“I used to tutor kids in inner cities, and one day I was looking at school programs in New York City and saw how they were using chess to enhance math skills,” she said.
Little did she know she would soon become queen of her own chess enterprise.
An uncle taught her how to play. And with a $25,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, she started the Right Noodle Left Noodle chess program seven years ago at Whitman Park Little League in Camden, N.J.
Two years later, the medical technician took her chessboards to Anna P. Mote Elementary School, near Prices Corner, where the game became a part of the regular curriculum.
Chess is a natural for getting math points across, she said.
Here is the full story.
This is excellent! Thanks for posting it!
Hi Susan,
There is a photo in the Learn Math Through Chess story with the caption, “First-grader Derek Laws takes his opponent’s king and learns some math during a chess match at Anna P. Mote Elementary.”
Well, Derek (or maybe the reporter) has something to learn about chess, as well as math!