As a chess educator, and program director at several schools, it concerns me that a. that girls seem to be in the minority, and b.
that their retention rate, and learning curve is less than that of boys.
At least for chess. Certainly there are fewer females at every level of
the sport.
Perhaps this may be a key for starters–just throwing it out there, for
I am indeed searching–
singlesexschools.org/research-learning.htm
What are the thoughts of those of you who teach??
Rob Jones
I have taught chess to kids, and I agree that different styles or events might be appropriate. At a school chess club, the girls and boys naturally segregated so that the girls were playing other girls, boys were playing other boys. It made for more comfort all around. I’ve seen and heard of meltdowns by both sides when boys and girls have to play together, and if they don’t like it, I would rather not force it.
I’ve seen this idea mentioned in the article that one should “encourage” girls and “give boys a reality check” but that does seem a bit unfair to the boys. As we see, the K-12 school environment is already less friendly to boys. And then the schools seem to augment this with their choice of subject matter. It’s now strictly forbidden to talk about guns, and I remember playing soldier (and general) as a boy. Just a few weeks ago, my ninth grade son just did less well than he could have on an English midterm, because he didn’t intuitively understand the issues in two poems about … conformity and female body image! (No wonder they hide the midterms and you have to ask specifically to review them!)
Chess is a battle game and it may just line up with that interest that boys often have. It’s a school activity where boys do better than girls, and boys probably need that to boost their self esteem in school. Not only that, it comes with plenty of reality checks! Along that line, I wouldn’t mind forgoing the trophy-for-every-participant although, silly as it is, I guess it’s not all that harmful.
I’m a volunteer coach, and it hasn’t come up in my group too much–but our group only has 6-7 students, only 1 is a girl, and she’s the most aggressive and enthusiastic of the group! While I’m trying to coax some of the boys to be aggressive and stop playing 1. … d6, 2. … e6, 3. … c6 passive openings, I have to keep scolding her for playing 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5. We have 16 students in the beginner group that I don’t teach, maybe it’s different there. But I don’t treat the students any differently, except that I do frequently note the added incentive of having the Girls’ nationals here in Chicago every year.
Perhaps because the Girls’ nationals is the only one my kids can get to, I already subtly encourage the girls more than the boys. But it is my best chance to get a student to place at a nationals.
I am not sure “fair” or “unfair” applies to the more difficult standard
apparently applied to boys in this article. I know that teachers using
a “pure” approach in teaching mathematics can often move further,
faster, and as a result, it could be the girls left behind in an “easier”
approach. Secondly, using a “general” brush to paint all of a gender
may leave behind girls who would excel in nearly any mixed-gender
group.
For a fact, you are correct in that girls esp do gravitate towards
other girls to play. While esp, the beginning level boys prefer other
boys, the preference is not a stark as with girls, from what I have
personally experienced. I think the social aspects of chess are more
meaningful to girls than guys.
I coached the HS chess team for 1 1/2 years, and the top two
players in the 30+ club players, and 11 member traveling team
were my two daughters. Now, I realize what an exception this was.
But, other than my girls, both are whom are still actively involved
with chess as adults, I never could recruit any of the other females
to the traveling squad.
Rob Jones
I am not sure “fair” or “unfair” applies to the more difficult standard
apparently applied to boys in this article. I know that teachers using
a “pure” approach in teaching mathematics can often move further,
faster, and as a result, it could be the girls left behind in an “easier”
approach. Secondly, using a “general” brush to paint all of a gender
may leave behind girls who would excel in nearly any mixed-gender
group.
For a fact, you are correct in that girls esp do gravitate towards
other girls to play. While esp, the beginning level boys prefer other
boys, the preference is not a stark as with girls, from what I have
personally experienced. I think the social aspects of chess are more
meaningful to girls than guys.
I coached the HS chess team for 1 1/2 years, and the top two
players in the 30+ club players, and 11 member traveling team
were my two daughters. Now, I realize what an exception this was.
But, other than my girls, both are whom are still actively involved
with chess as adults, I never could recruit any of the other females
to the traveling squad.
Rob Jones
It was nice when we had the Girl’s Kasparov in Dallas a few consecutive years. These events and others like it do create quite
a stir which interests the girls.
Rob Jones
This is drifting a bit off topic but it’s something I am feeling, and my boys are feeling (esp. the younger one who is the prankster type) these days. My comment about fairness was thinking not only of grading when it doesn’t matter (pre high school, it doesn’t matter, except for honors placement and such) but also grading when it does matter (high school, for the transcript) and discipline.
If the boy is getting “reality checks” right and left, that’s not really so safe for them in these zero-tolerance days, and maybe the boys are just getting beaten up and the article puts a nice face on it. There can be no question that an English midterm requiring a compare-and-contrast image about female body image is designed to favor girls over boys. It’s just so obvious. Unless I see an essay on the final about wrestling or some other very male-oriented topic, I’ll consider this case closed. Not that there’s much I can do about it, just that I’ll know that the people who say schools are designed to favor girls are, again, right.
It’s OK, we’ll work around it and get to our goals, knock on wood. But it’s unfair. The grade in this course is used to determine placement in honors English next year. In honors, you can get over 100%. It has inflated grading, and it’s definitely the way to a high English GPA. And knowing a lot about female body image, on the essay that is 60% of the points for the midterm, could easily make the difference in getting into honors.
Rob I wish you good luck getting interested girls to play chess, but it’s an uphill battle. If chess isn’t meaningful to those girls, maybe they know what they want. You know more about female adolescence than I do, but my impression is that social considerations take a large amount of attention for many girls. I’m inclined just to put chess out there for whomever is interested, and feel I did the right thing because it was available. Short of getting into the curriculum, that’s about the right position for an extracurricular activity, and if more pushing is to come, it should come from the parents in whatever direction they choose to raise their own children.
Could part of the answer for why girls are dropping out at an early age be that they
are being introduced to chess at too young an age?? According to some studies,
the cognitive ability in math of boys 6-7 is roughly comparable to girls 7-9. I have
no idea how this translates to girls for chess, but I do know that I have taught dozens
of boys in the 6-7 age group with noticeable progression, but very few girls in this
same age group. Further, that the difference in ability of girls to learn chess from ages
8-9, as opposed to 6-7 seems to be fairly great.
Which leads me to a thought–perhaps one of the reasons girls are dropping out is that
their chess experience begins too often before they are ready for it??
Rob Jones