AFebruary 26 1990
The Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Monday, February 26, 1990
STANDING OUT
Montessori moves to chess to sharpen minds
By Doina N. Locke
For The Pittsburgh Press
A teacher's dream came true this fall when Yoland Sweenie made chess part of the curriculum at Montessori Centre Academy in Shaler.
“I've been wanting to do this since I was a young teacher,” said Ms. Sweenie. “It just took me 10 years to figure out how to do it.”
Ms. Sweenie has been at the private school for 22 years. For the past 10, she has been the administrator, a position previously held by her mother, Yolanda Glasso.
Ms. Sweenie said her aim is to make her students competitive in the “global village” of the future. “Chess, its strategies and tactics…gives them a stronger intellect to work with,” she said. She called the chess class “mental gymnastics to allow the intellect to expand.”
Bob Smith, who teaches the finer elements of the game at the Montessori Centre, agrees. “I think chess in schools is a very good idea. It increases self-control, concentration and persistence. Some say it increases critical thinking faculties, the ability to plan and calculate. Those who play chess well generally do well scholastically.”
Smith, a past president of the Pittsburgh Chess Club and currently the scholastic director, would like to increase the use of chess in all classrooms. “There are schools with chess clubs,” he said, “but no schools with chess as a part of the curriculum. This is the first time in the area.”
He hopes to introduce chess to Pittsburgh School District as a part of the New Futures Program.
Ms. Sweenie believes old classroom techniques, such as “fill in the blanks” and “skill and drill” exercises are inadequate for intellectual development. “We are not taught thinking skills because of the way curricula are written.”
She believes the best way to teach is to capture the children's universal interests. However, the things that do capture their attention in the popular culture are flawed, in her opinion.
“Nintendo is too structured,” she said. “It is very logical, but (the player) must be logical and rigid.”
Television does little to inspire imagination: “There are so many predictable sitcoms that little is left to the imagination in plot and character development. Where are the thinking skills?
Chess is a required subject for students ages 9 through 12. For those from 6 to 9 years old, admission to the class is by invitation only. “It's a real 'carrot' for the children,” said Ms. Sweenie.
Smith is “a find, in background and commitment,” said head teacher Barbara Carolblum, who teaches the 9-to-12-year olds in an “open classroom with a lot of structure.” She said he teaches them as he would teach teenagers or adults.
The children respond well to Smith's tutelage.
“Because he brings them something they don't have, they listen to him like a master. There is a hierarchy of respect,” Ms. Sweenie said.
Exam day in the chess class provides a good example of Smith's teaching style. The exam was designed for the students to “test their tactics.” The test is three pages long, but only two pages had to be completed.
Students are allowed to work together. Some students were silent, but one sang until a loud “Shh!” hissed across the room.
Questions were allowed. In fact, one little girl who apparently thought more clearly with bare feet danced up to check with Smith several times.
Smith uses teaching materials from the U.S. Chess Federation, but the discipline is his own.
With 24 chess sets in operation at once, imagine the chaos possible if pawns, bishops, queens and knights strayed from their appointed boards. He encourages deliberation, reminding the students, “If you touch it, you move it.”
Smith feels practice is important to develop skills. “You learn more by losing. You have to lose 100 times before you learn the game.”
He should know. Smith has taught most of the top-ranked young chess players in Pittsburgh. Six young Pittsburgh players are currently ranked by the U.S. Chess Federation in the top 50 young players nationally. Smith predicated that soon there will be even more top-ranked young Pittsburghers, perhaps as many as 10, surpassing the previous record of eight.
Setting up children's programs in clubs and organizing a scholastic chess league has occupied much of Smith's time for the past six or seven years. Retired from the Defense Department and a subsequent career as a private investigator, the 65-year-old has thrown himself enthusiastically into his new career as a scholastic chess advocate.
