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(Note: This is Wes Fager's letter to the editor at the Washington
Post on March 18, 2004. The Post did not print his letter.)
Reference:
Ms. Strauss points out that classrooms across the country, even elementary
schools, are teaching chess to our kids, not just as a social activity,
but also as part of the curriculum. While I agree with these educators
that it is good to teach our children a game requiring intellectual skills,
they've missed the boat on which game to teach. But that is just a part
of our whole educational philosophy in America. We teach our kids to be
smart, but we don't teach them to be sociable.
All through a child's learning years, including college, he goes to his
room at night and solves complicated problems and writes detailed research
reports--alone. Our kids graduate and become good engineers and businessmen
who can work alone to solve all sorts of engineering problems. They get
quick, well deserved promotions, make more money than mom and dad ever
made, and then they want that big promotion. Problem is, the next step
is management. All their lives they've sat in their room, alone, solving
problems, and now they must manage resources, including people. That's
when they fail and the ulcers start.
Teaching kids chess only exasperates the problem. In a chess match one
works alone, silently playing an opponent. No one ever speaks while neurons
in your child's brain develop new paths of intellectual skills. One becomes
smarter and smarter, all the while becoming more and more introverted.
One is not taught to be a team player, just a brain.
Yes, I agree it's high time to introduce our kids to an intellectual game,
but chess is not the one. The answer, of course, is contract bridge. Bridge
is a partnership game. You play with a team, against a team. You socialize
while bidding and playing. You develop leadership skills, and you become
smart, too. Contract bridge is the chess of playing card games. Bridge
is exceedingly more difficult to learn than chess. One could teach a child
the moves of chess pieces in 30 minutes. After that the novice spends
a lifetime developing strategies to improve skill levels. But it takes
several weeks of reading, play, and perhaps practice on simulators to
become proficient at partnership bidding in bridge. And then you must
deal with odds, and the permutations and combinations of the cards dealt
in the play of the hands which is where you start comparing the intellectual
plays of bridge to those of chess.
Who can name for me a husband and a wife who play chess on a Friday night.
It just isn't done. If you want to have fun on Friday night you invite
the Jone's over for diner and then you all wile away the evening in a
good rubber match. And by the way, stress more golf too. More business
deals are made on the back nine than any other place on earth.
Wesley M. Fager
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