Birmingham, Alabama, plans to follow Armenia’s example, introduce
chess in schools
17:15 22.07.2014
Birmingham, Alabama, is looking to make chess a fixture in its
schools, in hopes that it will allow kids to stretch their minds and
improve their analytical abilities, the Desert News reports.
The plan is to create chess clubs at 15 to 20 schools in the
Birmingham school system. The hopes reach beyond math, AL.com notes.
“According to Birmingham City Schools officials, the benefit of chess
instruction is not limited to math achievement,” AL.com noted. “It is
also known to increase analytical and problem solving skills, improve
memory and has even been shown to increase IQ scores, they said.”
But math is a big part of the picture. School officials cite a 1998
study that showed improved math skills after exposure to chess, AL.com
reported. “The researchers randomly gave black high school students
from the rural South 120 hours of chess instruction. They then
administered math proficiency tests and found that students who
received the chess instruction scored better than those who did not.”
“Chess allows students to think critically, to strategize, to plan
moves several steps ahead, and to think about consequences of moves,”
said Dr. Chad Witherspoon, superintendent of the Birmingham City
Schools in a new promotional video. “It gives students an opportunity
to think at a different level.”
Across the Atlantic a similar chess push is underway, as an
ideologically diverse group of political leaders in the United Kingdom
is now pushing for chess integration into public schools.
Yasmin Qureshi, a Member of Parliament, argued that all state primary
schools should have chess as part of the curriculum and should be made
a sport with access to sports funding, according to a report in the
Telegraph.
“The skills involved in playing chess are actually skills that a lot
of young people can benefit from learning, especially children who
have problems with attention and hyperactivity,” Qureshi said.
In 2011 chess became a compulsory feature in public schools in
Armenia, a nation obsessed with the game. Armenia invested $1.5
million to create textbooks and curricula, train instructors and buy
equipment.
“We hope that the Armenian teaching model might become among the best
in the world,” Armen Ashotyan told The Associated Press at the time.
“By incorporating chess as part of the curriculum you are including a
game, and that’s how kids see it,” said Wendi Fischer, executive
director of the US Foundation for Chess in the same AP report. “They
think they’re focused on fun. So I think it is a great way to cross
over between a true hardcore curriculum that’s mandatory and the young
children being able to play and explore and have fun.”