Our plan
With the curriculum in Washington DC so focused on basic instruction, we decided to think outside the box and bring chess instruction to an area middle school. Our hope was to use a game to get the students to use their minds in a way that diverged from their standard school day. We hoped to get them to slow down and think ahead about their moves in the hope that this would change how they think about the world.
What we did
With a friend we started an after-school chess program and started with about 5 school children, but the enthusiasm seemed to grow. By the end we had about 10 kids coming by and playing each other in chess. Some knew how to play already and others were learning for the first time. They all seemed to enjoy it.
Our results
The teachers had some time after school to gather their thought and the kids were "quietly" entranced in playing chess for about an hour after school. Several learned the game during the semester we worked with them and others seemed to get batter as the year went on. I'm not sure how it changed the way the students used their minds over the long run, but it certainly seemed to help them focus during the semester. We were happy to have the after-school program grow over the course of the project and hope to start it again in the future.
fpluchhieree
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