How I Taught My 3-Year Old to Play Chess

When a child enters a traditional classroom, he finds the seat that he has been assigned, and sits quietly. The teacher then lectures for majority of the class and, on occasion, has a worksheet to fill out. This type of teaching is called teacher-centered instruction. It is the way that they have been doing school for thousands of years with little to no changes.
Think about this; when they were putting leeches on people to suck out diseases they were teaching this way. The medical field has radically changed over the last 1,000 years and yet educational methods have remained basically the same.
I would like to propose that we start to do school differently. Let’s make the student the center of his education. What if we allowed the student to choose what he studied? What if we let his passions for learning just run wild?
Well, that is what I did with my 3- year old son, Landen. About two weeks ago, I asked Landen if he would like to play chess and he said no. In our house my wife and I ask our children to do things. We do not demand or command unless it is something necessary. He said no so I went on my day.
Later, I was playing chess on my phone when Landen became curious. He asked me to show him how to play. I first had him set up the pawns and then the king. Slowly I started adding more pieces. He learned their names and their locations. Then he said he was done. So he went back to playing on his kindle.
It wasn’t two hours later he wanted to know how the pieces moved. Within a couple of hours he was able to set up the board, know all the names of the pieces, and vaguely remembered how each piece moves. As the week has gone by he is becoming better and better at moving the pieces.
On the second day I downloaded a chess game onto his kindle so that he would be able to play against the computer. The program is helpful because it gives him a visual on the ways each piece can move and whether or not his piece is in danger of being caught.
Can you imagine if I had put him in a class with 20 other children and had them take notes on each piece and its moves? Then, at the end of the week, handed them all a multiple choice test to assess their knowledge? I would literally be robbing them of their joy in learning.
For both my wife and I, teaching is a passion. We are both educators that have taught preschool to college age students. Through all of my experiences I have found that a person only learns what he wants to learn. Yes, you can force a person to memorize facts for a test, but how many of us, given that same test 3-weeks later would still pass? That is not real learning.
Real education comes from a genuine yearning from within an individual. Educators can nurture these desires, but they cannot make learning happen. We cannot force a person to live a certain way. Many parents and teachers believe that they should force a child to do certain things. If the child does not want to participate, then he is punished. This type of conditioning will only insure that the child becomes blindly obedient to future authority figures. We should teach our children to do what is right, not what is commanded.
What about if the child or student needs to know about something? First, you should question whether the student really ‘needs’ to know what you want him to know. How many people live their lives without knowing this or these fact(s) and are just fine? Once your perspective has changed, your approach should too. You can invite the child to share in learning about this subject. Maybe expose him through showing him something exciting you can do with the knowledge.
For example, if you are wanting your child/student to be able to do calculus, math, science, etc, take him to a gaming or robotic convention to show him that he can do these things, but that to get to that point, he has to learn the subjects.
I am not suggesting to excite him at first and then bore him the rest of the year. If design is the goal, then have him use calculus or physics to design a project. This is called, project based learning. Students or children are learning traditional subject, but through building and working on projects. This creates for a deeper and enriched source of learning.
Learning chess at the age of three might not be ideal for your child if your child is not interested in doing something as analytical as chess. My son has been putting puzzles together since he was one. He currently puts together 50 piece puzzles all by himself. He likes to think things through and figure out the answers.
My daughter is not like this and I would never try to teach chess to her at that age. Instead, I think she might be interested in playing an instrument. But I will not know until I ask her. Remember, keeping your relationship with a child voluntary is important to developing a lasting relationship with him. This will help foster an educational environment that will surpass society’s exceptions for your child.
Want to get updates straight from The Stand?
Subscribe Here
Want to join the global liberty community? Become a Liberty.me member.
The Stand
Join The Discussion
11 CommentsThoughts? Comments?
Please login or register to post a comment.
Justine Pitcher January 24, 2015 , 10:30 am
It is so natural to want to learn. How our schools destroy that curiosity is just bizarre. I greatly appreciate your article and your approach to learning. I took both my kids out of high-school and enrolled them with a centre (International Centre for Excellence) run by the delightful Victoria Carlton here in Western Australia. Her approach is somewhat similar to yours. Our education system needs an overhaul…NO – a revolution!!. Forget about age and marketing your own school. Keep the magic of learning alive.
p.s. I was delighted by this story today! http://bbc.in/15ER22L
Michael Esch January 24, 2015 , 1:24 pm Vote0
Thank you! I always love hearing from a reader. I am not familiar with the International Centre for Excellence, I will have to look into that. As for creating my own school it has been a dream of my wife and I’s for a long time. We have not decided if the school will be in the states or in an impoverished country. We have a passion for teaching and would like to one day throw off the shackles of working by someone else’s guide lines and standards. To be free to worry about each individual student and their family will be a nice change.
That story is awesome! I hope to be like that when I am that age.
Blue Square January 24, 2015 , 3:22 pm Vote0
This is beautiful!
I’m an educator in a small adult classroom and I’m a dad of little ones too. I strive for the method you describe. 🙂
Bruce Koerber January 24, 2015 , 4:38 pm Vote0
Dear Michael,
Here’s one of the reasons why I was alert to the possibilities for the advancement of civilization: (from my “About” page)
“Constantly I pondered. Then one night during the winter of 2004 I had a dream and a model appeared. I was awake enough to realize that it was quite remarkable and also awake enough to know that I should sketch it out so I would not forget it if I fell back asleep. The next morning when I looked at the sketch of the model I understood that it was a significant contribution to economic science!
I began earnestly to use my technical training in economics in the tradition of classical liberalism. What initially motivated me was my desire to fund a private after-school program teaching youngsters the skills associated with the virtues. I thought I could write a book and use the money from the sales to provide the necessary supplementary financing. ”
My business plan includes returning to the idea of providing a structure of education once the revenue flow from my book sales provides foundational sustenance. Maybe we will work together in the future!
With warm regards,
Bruce
Michael Esch January 25, 2015 , 12:03 am Vote0
It is interesting, because just a few years ago, I was sitting in a corporate office when I decided to give it up to pursue and I have never looked back. It is by far the most self-fulling field to be in.
Michael Esch January 25, 2015 , 12:30 am Vote0
That sounds like a great idea! Throughout my teaching experience I have found more and more teachers that agree with this style of teaching. I find that many teachers are tired of having to “teach to the test” and miss the days when they had more freedom in the classroom.
Justine Pitcher January 25, 2015 , 4:34 am
International Centre for Excellence is at
http://www.ice-au.com/
My kids learned more in 5 hours with them than in 5 days at school!
Adam Michael Wood January 27, 2015 , 7:30 pm Vote0
I agree with what you talk about in terms of methodology, but I think your historicity is somewhat lacking.
The model of schooling that you indict is a product of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the same modernist movement that brought us antiseptic hospitals that improved certain measurable health outcomes at the expense of the patient’s humanity.
To continue the medical parallel, the “new” way of teaching is analogous to the new way of thinking about patient care that has grown up over roughly the same period of time: a return to a traditional and holistic concern for the wellbeing of the patient, informed by the hard science and techniques made possible by the modern “factory” hospital.
Zachary January 27, 2015 , 7:47 pm Vote0
Your article reminds me of how Antoine de Saint Exupéry is popularly paraphrased: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Michael Esch January 27, 2015 , 10:23 pm Vote0
Thank you! That quote is amazing. I am not familiar with Antoine de Saint Exupery.
Michael Esch January 27, 2015 , 10:43 pm Vote0
Thank you for your comment. This is a perfect example of our analogies are not always good to use when introducing ideas to people. Any analogy taken too far turns out to be false. My point was that is teaching method has not changed. There is an instructor who knows all the information and they want to copy that information to their students. It is a teacher-centered instruction. Evidence, that they have done this for a 1,000 years, can be seen in writings about how monks instructed their students. Please see the link below for a history of education.
Do you have evidence of a different teaching method that was being used before the 19th century? I was not referring to the amount of people being educated, but the method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education#cite_note-35