ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Pas Simpson believes every child should learn to play chess. It’s a game that prepares them for life, he said.
“It teaches them to think two and three steps ahead,” Simpson said. “Life doesn’t happen at one step. Life happens in multiple steps.”
Through his Big Happy Consultants Chess Program, Simpson has been teaching Allentown School District elementary students the fundamentals of the game with an emphasis on social-emotional skills.
“Especially because we’re teaching elementary school students, it’s a way for us to build confidence, a way for us to build community and a way for them to be able to find the chance to always reinvigorate themselves,” said Simpson, who is also an ASD parent.
The program is one of a dozen summer enrichment activities offered across eight elementary school sites. About 300 students have participated in various activities, including chess, boxing, soccer, art and Latin dance, among others.
The goal is to allow students a safe space to explore new interests during the summer months, said Ryan Yurchick, ASD’s director of arts and wellness.
“If you’re home for too long, sometimes you run out of activities [and] things to do,” Yurchick said. “I think it’s good to provide the space for families to mix it up.”
“It enhances critical thinking, problem solving and analytical skills.”Toomey Anderson, K-12 coordinator of activities and athletics
Shoon Hle, a rising sixth grader, came to the chess program in July with her twin brother Wira Thu, another rising sixth grader. The siblings went to Lehigh Parkway Elementary School last school year and will start at South Mountain Middle School in the fall.
If the two weren’t at the chess program, the sister-brother duo said they’d be playing video games or reading comics. They enjoyed learning the new game.
“I move at a slower pace but it gets easier,” said Shoon, 11. “I like how chess is really calming for me.”
Game of strategy
“Chess teaches about strategy,” added Wira, 11. “It taught me how to use a type of strategy, trying to open my sister’s defenses and to send my queen to get rid of her king.”
Christian Conrad, a rising fourth grader at Lehigh Parkway, said it’s important to protect your king and queen.
“Don’t put them out as soon as the game starts, wait a little,” the 9-year-old boy advised. “You don’t want your queen to get taken during the start because it’s the strongest piece. It could go diagonal, up, down, right, left.”
About 55 elementary students participated in the summer chess program, held at Roosevelt and Union Terrace elementary schools.
Toomey Anderson, ASD’s K-12 coordinator of activities and athletics, said the chess program allows students the chance to learn a game that many have only seen before on TV.
Chess also teaches them many skills that are translatable to other areas of life, he said.
“It enhances critical thinking, problem solving and analytical skills,” Anderson said. “It demands intense focus and concentration, patience, discipline – it’s a lot of different things.”
Building community bonds
Simpson’s approach to teaching chess also centers on community.
“We let them know that the pawns can get across the board and be anything they want to be,” he said. “We use the pawns as a way of building hope, not just a way of sacrifice, which is different than how most people teach chess.”
Students practice daily affirmations throughout the program.
They tell each other they’re “awesome” and “amazing” instead of “tearing each other down and laughing at each other as they’re learning a new game,” Simpson said.
Students also learn to view themselves as kings and queens – moving deliberately and thinking about how their actions impact others.
“They get used to calling themselves queens and kings,” Simpson said, “get used to seeing themselves as something greater than what society has told them, or what they may have accepted about themselves.”
Each student gets to take home a free, new chess set at the end of the program to keep practicing, Simpson said.
