Why is chess not that popular?

You hit the nail in the head there.  My wife goes to Italy with students that choose to go.  It's to learn culture and history tied into Latin (Italian is derived from Latin).  However, here's some things I can tell you about her experiences (thus far, she's gone Summers of 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and they are going this year for Spring Break):

1) They are allowed to go off on their own for a few hours, but they will say that all the students and chaperones need to meet at say, 6 o'clock.  One girl had her mother's watch on, but it was analog, and she seriously told my wife that she doesn't know how to tell time, which just goes to confirm your statement!

2) The legal age for drinking in Italy is 16, but the Chaperones required parental consent by parents of those 18 to 20, and wouldn't allow kids under 18 to drink.  However, some of the 16 and 17 year olds go on this trip figuring they can sneak the alcohol and don't give two hoots about the history.  There is an agreement signed before the trip that any kid caught drinking will be sent home on the next available flight, NO REFUND!  I think she's had to send 1 thus far in the first 4 trips if memory serves me right, and she has a hunch about one of this year's attendees.

Then, back here at home, in the 2004-2005 school year, she was in a trailer (overcrowded school), and they were on a 4x4 schedule.  That's where you have "A-Day" and "B-Day" and they alternate.  The purpose is instead of meeting 45 minutes for 8 classes, they meet 90 minutes, but only have 4 classes a day, and only meet every other day.  Now, many schools use that format but instead do semisters, but with foreign language, that still follows A-Day/B-Day because they figure you need to meet for the year.

That said, she had planning 4th block on both A-day and B-day.  The teacher that taught a marketing class had the class in her classroom on A-Day.  She literally would fall asleep, and the kids would be roaming wild.  In March 2005, some idiot decided to go into her desk drawer, take out a pair of scissors, and actually cut the cord of the clock in the room, and there was clearly a spark as there was then a hole in the blades of the scissors.  Lucky for the kid, they took the ones witht he plastic handles.

It gets better, 2005-2006 rolls around and she's in the same room.  They replaced the clock, albeit this one was smaller.  She had this one student named Chris King in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.  He was a true idiot.  Here's some of the things he did:

1) Answered a translation with the word "sleeped" (uhm, past tense for sleep is "slept")

2) In their book, the English was written on the left, the Latin on the right.  He's reading the English and says "You know, this subject is really easy!"

3) In the fall of 2005, he's in Latin 2, and he tells the teacher (my wife), "You know, this class is going by faster than it has in the past."  He then looks towards the clock and says "Oh, the clock is smaller, that explains why time is going so much faster this year!"

Well, let's just say things haven't really improved at all for 2012-2013, and it's no different!  We will certainly make sure we find a way to make our almost 3-year old daughter become an exception and not fall into this trap that kids are falling into now-a-days.

Very happy to hear a normal person again. Been a while. Cheers! : )))

Chesslover0_0.....I know you mean well and I am very grateful, a lot of what you said is true. I appreciate your honesty and believe me I am trying, in all ways. Cheers. : )))

It's probably because it requires you to think something people these days don't know how to do