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发帖数: 19398 | 1 A Florida district has become the largest player in a national movement to t
each chess in public schools by providing weekly lessons to all of its 34,00
0 second- and third-graders. "I was skeptical of it in the beginning," teach
er Justine Maver said. "But you can put (chess) with anything, math, science
-- it really works."
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(Reuters) - Leaning over chess boards in the middle of classes, seven- and e
ight-year-olds in one of Florida's largest school districts furrow their bro
ws as they plot moves toward a checkmate.
It isn't just play. The chess games are part of a weekly lesson given to all
34,000 second- and third-graders in Broward County Public Schools, the sixt
h-biggest district in the nation, in one of the largest such curriculum expe
riments in the country."Chess is the means to an end," said Mark Strauss, Br
oward's director of school performance and accountability, explaining that i
t teaches analytical skills disguised as a game.
"To a child, learning is not work," he added. "The act of sitting and fillin
g in a bubble sheet is work."
The initiative builds on growing numbers of school-age children playing ches
s in the United States. Along with Florida, thousands of students in New Yor
k City and Chicago are learning chess in school, also taught in major distri
cts in Texas, Michigan and Washington state, among others.
From pre-school through college, scholastic memberships in the United States
Chess Federation have increased for the past two years, officials say. Play
ers under the age of 20 make up about 60 percent of the leading national che
ss organization.
"The more kids that are playing, the more people take notice," said Marley K
aplan, president and chief executive of Chess in the Schools in New York Cit
y, whose program has reached a half-million children in high-poverty schools
since 1986.
What sets Broward County apart was its decision that "this is not just good
for a few kids, this is good for all kids," said Wendi Fischer, executive di
rector of America's Foundation for Chess, which created the video-driven les
sons, called First Move, used in Broward and other districts.
After three schools in Sunrise, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, piloted the pro
gram last year, Broward officials asked others if they wanted to join. Withi
n a day, 100 principals volunteered.
At Discovery Elementary, a pilot school, Principal Angela Fulton said famili
es came together around the chessboards sent home with students. In a thank-
you note, one child said chess allowed him to spend more time with his fathe
r.
On Friday, the mostly minority school, where few students had previously pla
yed, began its second year of chess lessons when teacher Justine Maver showe
d a video on a smart board.
The Chess Lady, as the program's virtual instructor is called, began a lesso
n blending geography and chess themes.
"I was skeptical of it in the beginning," said Maver, a third-grade teacher.
"But you can put (chess) with anything, math, science - it really works."
When game boards came out, the students played intensely.
"You have to think ahead and really focus," said Jaden Meneses, 7. "It is a
little bit challenging, but I like to learn new things so I can get smarter
and smarter."
(Writing by Letitia Stein; Reporting by Letitia Stein and Zachary Fagenson;
Editing by Ken Wills) |
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