tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post7851785223482494271..comments2023-12-28T02:11:22.501+00:00Comments on The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog: Richard James On Junior Chess: 3. It's Good For Kids, Isn't ItTom Chivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09850710685193416732noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-82883783907052127362012-05-11T11:18:52.927+01:002012-05-11T11:18:52.927+01:00Hi J.A. and many thanks for your comment.
Actuall...Hi J.A. and many thanks for your comment.<br /><br />Actually a 90% dropout rate is good (I wouldn't say 'fail' - I dropped out of piano lessons after 2 or 3 years but I did enough to give me a lifelong interest in music.) What happens these days is that young children start off by trying out a lot of different things and, as they get older, restrict themselves to 2 or 3 major interests so with everything there will be a high drop-out rate. We in the chess community have to promote chess in such a way as to persuade as many kids as possible to make chess one of these major interests.<br /><br />At present we're very unsuccessful in doing this - our drop-out rate from primary school chess is more than 99%, probably, using CvW's terms, more like 99.9%.Richard Jameshttp://www.richardjames.org.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-63486590346793565452012-05-11T00:27:26.609+01:002012-05-11T00:27:26.609+01:00So Cor van Wijgerden on the one hand criticizes a ...So Cor van Wijgerden on the one hand criticizes a chess program that will "lose almost all of them", yet on the other hand his goal is a 90% fail rate (100 out of 1000)?<br /><br />Aim low.J.A. Topfkenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-44743037002147824762012-04-24T21:13:33.525+01:002012-04-24T21:13:33.525+01:00My problem with that page is not so much the artic...My problem with that page is not so much the articles it links to - although, I'd say that as a general rule if you're really serious about proving something you probably don't want to be citing anything Susan Polgar publishes as evidence - it's the claims that are made for it.<br /><br />I was at the LCC in December when I picked up a brochure that claimed something along the lines of: there's evidence to prove learning chess makes children smarter. Look at our website for details.<br /><br />Then, when you look, there's no evidence at all since, as you say, all the studies are hopelessly methodologically flawed - or the methodology isn't described so there's no way to know whether they're flawed or not. Equally often there's no details of where the 'studies' have been published.Jonathan Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00293162543015231439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-75529007626667179422012-04-24T13:22:51.053+01:002012-04-24T13:22:51.053+01:00Well, they quote a lot of papers, some of which ha...Well, they quote a lot of papers, some of which have some sort of validity. I like the way they refer to papers 'hand-picked' by me when in fact they were written by me.<br /><br />Most children in most primary school chess clubs, though, just enjoy playing casual games with their friends. They are doing little more than playing random moves and have no real interest in learning to play better. It's just the chess equivalent of kicking a ball around in the playground or splashing around in the shallow end of the pool. Good fun, but, given the level at which they're playing, I really don't see that they are gaining any cognitive benefit from it.Richard Jameshttp://www.richardjames.org.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-81913707050522652432012-04-24T12:51:36.269+01:002012-04-24T12:51:36.269+01:00I really don’t think it’s a good idea to draw absu...<i>I really don’t think it’s a good idea to draw absurd conclusions from dubious studies as a way of promoting chess in schools</i><br /><br />Quite.<br /><br />I was planning an article on the <a href="http://www.chessinschools.co.uk/research.htm" rel="nofollow">'research base'</a> Chess in Schools and Communities claim for their activities. Frankly, it's a total embarrassment.<br /><br />The programme itself might well be a very good one, but I don't see how spouting obvious bullshit helps the cause. Especially, when, as the paragraph that the quote above is taken from makes clear, there are many genuine reasons that it might be a good idea that children learn how to play chess.Jonathan Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00293162543015231439noreply@blogger.com