From small beginnings

When I first starting working in public schools 2 years ago, I was scared. I was hired to be the technologist at a local middle school. Not growing up in the city, I didn't know much about the school. People quickly started telling me the dark side. My new school was the "bad" school where kids don't care about learning, teachers get things stolen, families don't care, and the only things that matter are sports and rap music. While many of these things were over exaggerated, I will admit the school was different from what I was use to growing up. One thing this building did have however, was staff that cared about the students no matter how much they acted up, and staff that was like a family. As the newest and youngest member of the family, I tried to fit in right away. Like any good co-workers, we like to compete against one another. That is how it all happened. Sitting around during lunch in the staff rooms with other staff members, we began playing each other in chess. Granted none of us were pros, really none of us were that good in the grand sense, but we could tell if something was dropping a piece and understand some pieces where better then others. And so we played everyday during lunch, and sometimes after school and during conference periods. We even played during our training sessions. Slowly we started seeing certain tricks and strategies that worked well. We started understanding why moving e4 and d4 first where much better moves then some of the other strange openings we would make. We even learned the beloved 4 move checkmate, then even more quickly learned how to make the other player pay dearly if they dared try it on us.
Then something strange happened. Our students started asking us how we play. They wanted to learn, and to play us. We started with students during the last few minutes of their class, then during the time before school started, and slowly they started showing up everyday during their lunch. They would grab food from the cafeteria and head straight to our rooms. It was slow at first, we would beat the quickly, and briefly explain why moving the queen so quickly hurt them, or why moving the King unguarded in the corner was a poor defense. We would tell them to mirror our openings so they could learn them. We taught them when sacrifices need to be made, and how to carefully make sure you aren't dropping pieces and are guarding the important squares. Then alittle at a time we noticed the started beating the other teachers that have just started to learn also. We laughed at the time.... but then they started beating the rest of us teachers that have had a bit more practice. We blamed it on our carelessness and were able to put up face for a few weeks longer, but then it got to the point where every teacher prays for a student to be. They were learning faster then we could teach them, not only that, they were beginning to over power us. I won't lie to you, the first time it happens, it sucks. Now, however, I realize what a positive thing this has been. Other students who have seen how much fun the original students are having have began to show up to play. When we found a 1900 rated player who was able to play 6 of our children all at the same time, we had other students sitting by watching in silence amazed. The real amazing thing that happened though was what other teachers were telling us. They said they noticed the students we have that play chess everyday seem more focused and more patient. Students how typically sat around doing nothing and ignoring the teachers were trying hard to get through their homework so they could play chess at the end of the class time. Chess became a competitive thing in a positive way also. It is typical to hear some of the students tell us they will "kill us at chess" or tell another student that "they don't even stand a chance," then beg the teacher to let them play.
The patience and cooperativeness of students are just some of the easy things to see that chess has done for students. Pride and confidence are the things that are a bit more hard to see, but have come through so much in our kids. In our school filled with students yelling about the newest athletes and rap stars; chess players are thought of as something very cool. They think it is hard and difficult, but something that needs alot of respect for those very reasons. Everyday the club expands, and why the teachers are busy getting new tournaments for the children to play in, get more lessons for the students to expand their skill, and more funds to pay for trips and equipment, we have more and more students coming to play.