28-12-2013, 02:54 AM
The topic regarding the location of the ChessScotland Girls Championships made me think about chess in schools, particularly secondary schools, over the time of my playing career.
In my third year at Greenwood Academy in Ayrshire (a state comprehensive), along game this maths teacher called Stephen Taylor who started the school chess club. Soon he was overrun by (mostly) guys and girls wanting to play chess at lunchtime and after school finished. He formed some teams, we entered the Ayrshire school league, then the national jamborees that were held throughout Scotland for teams of ten.
At that time there were four divisions of ten teams mostly made up as I recall by private schools. It was great fun to travel to host places like Madras and Robert Gordons staying in youth hostels and trekking everywhere in Scotland to play chess as a team. Our school didn't have much money but Stephen was creative using his youth hostel leader's badge and family railcard/vouchers off the back of cornflakes packets to get us all to events.
Stephen is still there at Greenwood running the school chess club and is as enthusiastic as ever. Many of his former chess students like Elliot Frew, David Deary, David Congalton, Crawford MacNab and myself are just as enthusiastic today, right through to guys like Daniel Deary and Jack Stewart who are the cream of the current Greenwood crop. I am sure all of us would consider Stephen as a good friend and always will.
What has changed nationally and above all why has it changed?
Has the Scottish school curriculum made it more difficult for enthusiastic teachers to commit their time to out of hours activities like chess?
Is money the reason? Are parents unable to afford to send their children to regional and national school events?
Have children got different interests in our modern technology driven society?
Would be good to hear the views of guys who played school chess in those "golden years" of the post Fischer era, both from a private and state school perspective.
In my third year at Greenwood Academy in Ayrshire (a state comprehensive), along game this maths teacher called Stephen Taylor who started the school chess club. Soon he was overrun by (mostly) guys and girls wanting to play chess at lunchtime and after school finished. He formed some teams, we entered the Ayrshire school league, then the national jamborees that were held throughout Scotland for teams of ten.
At that time there were four divisions of ten teams mostly made up as I recall by private schools. It was great fun to travel to host places like Madras and Robert Gordons staying in youth hostels and trekking everywhere in Scotland to play chess as a team. Our school didn't have much money but Stephen was creative using his youth hostel leader's badge and family railcard/vouchers off the back of cornflakes packets to get us all to events.
Stephen is still there at Greenwood running the school chess club and is as enthusiastic as ever. Many of his former chess students like Elliot Frew, David Deary, David Congalton, Crawford MacNab and myself are just as enthusiastic today, right through to guys like Daniel Deary and Jack Stewart who are the cream of the current Greenwood crop. I am sure all of us would consider Stephen as a good friend and always will.
What has changed nationally and above all why has it changed?
Has the Scottish school curriculum made it more difficult for enthusiastic teachers to commit their time to out of hours activities like chess?
Is money the reason? Are parents unable to afford to send their children to regional and national school events?
Have children got different interests in our modern technology driven society?
Would be good to hear the views of guys who played school chess in those "golden years" of the post Fischer era, both from a private and state school perspective.