Chess: Exhilarating and Fun

The game, or sport, of chess engages the player in a complex process that increasingly beguiles teachers and school administrators around the world.

Judging by reports in an ever larger number of Google Alerts that pours into my computer daily, scholastic chess programs continue to proliferate.

In a sense, the game is subversive. It challenges the static focus on memorization and canned answers that is the bane of good teaching.

Instead of factoids, the student confronts ideas that are dynamic and constantly employed in a context of play and struggle.

Learning based on so-called facts is replaced or supplemented by a dialectical process of theory and practice.

Most children are natural autodidacts if we allow them to be. They teach themselves and they teach each other — drawing constantly on fresh experience.

Their naive response is that errors are not abhorrent or punishable. They are, instead, moments for insight learning and even a chuckle or two.

The process is deeply satisfying, empowering and fun.

It is not a surprise that many children find the chess experience exhilarating.

Source: http://www.vnews.com