Slashdot Mirror
Armenia Makes Chess Compulsory In Schools
Hugh Pickens writes "AFP News reports that chess will become a required subject in primary schools in Armenia, where children from the age of six will learn chess as a separate subject on the curriculum for two hours a week. The lessons, which start later this year, will 'foster schoolchildren's intellectual development' and teach them to 'think flexibly and wisely', says Arman Aivazian, an official at the Ministry of Education. President Serzh Sarkisian, an enthusiastic supporter of the game, has committed around $1.5 million to the scheme in a move to turn the country of 3.2 million people into a global force in the games, says Aivazian. 'Teaching chess in schools will create a solid basis for the country to become a chess superpower.' Armenia's national team won gold at the biennial International Chess Olympiad in both 2006 and 2008, and the country's top player, Levon Aronian, is currently ranked number three in the world."
Seriously, though, this is an intriguing way of fostering logical/analytical/creative thinking. I wonder if there is any peer reviewed literature on the impact of chess on children?
Physicist, consultant, science communicator
Creationism is elevated to the status of scientific theory to be taught in schools.
Hmmmm, boy those Armenians sure have their education priorities wrong.
For more reasons then one. First off it's roughly as valid if not more then say algebra and similar subjects when it comes to a career, algebra is specifically taught more or less as a subject that is useless in most lines of work on its own, but teaches the brain to think in ways it will need to. Secondly, it is a competitive activity. Why do Japanese students tend to do so much better then american students, simple they compete in mental subjects, the grades are posted on a giant board for everyone to see, and are ranked from smartest to dumbest. In america grades are confidential, we can't risk students self esteem getting hurt when they are made fun of for being dumb, so we have to hide that from them and allow only 1 subject where they will be mocked for being bad at Gym. Guess what subject our kids focus on and practice to avoid looking dumb in front of their friends, yup we pump out thousands of idiots who are hoping for the 1 in a billion shot at being a professional athlete. If we brought the same criticism to chess, I have a feeling we'd get many more future programmers etc due to their minds actually being trained. Worse case scenario, chess boxing would become the next big thing.
I studied 2 years of chess in Armenia, beginning from grade 4 in a 10 year secondary system. Of course, this was during Soviet times and you were allowed to choose from a range of subjects. It wasn't compulsory. My grades in other subjects improved dramatically as a result.
Really glad this is happening.
Plotting, scheming. Next it'll be mandatory reading of Sun Tzu's Art of War, Animal Farm and 1984. Apple stores burnt to the ground. Halted sales of converse to Hipsters. Mandatory prison sentences for anyone using a laptop at Tzarbucks. These are the children of the future...
Task Mangler
I wonder if the Armenian Government is afraid of producing more Kardashians.
I for one welcome our chess playing overlords.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
My dad taught me chess when I was around 10 and we played regularly until I was out of high school. In 11th-12th grade we played 2-3-4 hour games almost nightly. I eventually won more than I lost before I moved out.
Of all the things, I think it taught me how to think many steps ahead on projects and tasks and improved my analytical thinking immeasurably.
Kudos for Armenia on this..there is nothing bad about it.
American schools in the south have mandated that schools shall now teach Tiddlywinks in an effort to increase manual dexterity so as to reduce the likelihood of burger flipping injuries for future generations.
The class shall follow directly after the new science curriculum, "7 days, the making of Earth".
If there's any game I would want required for students it would be: Poker. (I say this, having been weaned on chess as a kid, and having won a competition in high school.) The problem with chess is at least twofold, in that it has both (a) full information, and (b) no randomness, a bad model for real-world applications, which will not present themselves that way. I'd rather have people playing poker and dealing with (a) probability, (b) partial information, (c) logic and deduction, (d) psychology and reading people, (e) betting and expected values, etc.
The last test I gave in a community college stats class had this question: "True or false: If I roll a fair die 36 times, a one will come up 6 times." Almost everyone in the class said "true". Afterward, I had one of my better students remark with surprise, "So it's not certain?" I'd love to not have to introduce the very idea of probability to students for the first time when they're sophomores in college.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
I can just imagine a choice between gym class and Go class. I know which I would have picked!
Studying Chess is in no way equivalent to studying Go. The study of Chess is about memorizing openings, endgames, game positions, and strategies; the study of Go is about understanding. Some people like to memorize as much Joseki as they can; but most professionals study and understand some Joseki, then abandon memorization of piles of Joseki and all 25,000 variations because they know how moves play out. More importantly, which josek, tesuji, etc to use depends on the whole board position, and (by extension) on the timing of play; the 3-3 invasion behind the 4-4 early in the opening is a mistake. As far as openings go in general, there are some (nirensen, sanrensen, high/low/mini chinese, etc); but they are rather variable, and the decision on how and when to approach, what approach to use, how to extend, etc is a matter of goals.
There is no book of all good Go openings; the openings are a framework, with many variations, responses, etc. What actually happens is a matter of complex strategy.
Support my political activism on Patreon.