I work at a juvenile detention center and we have a pretty serious gang problem. Our day is divided into various forms of time (rec time, free time, constructive time). I pushed to get chess added as a "constructive time" activity. It was already a free time activity. I then instituted the crudest ranking system you've ever seen based on the only free thing I could find on-line to keep track - a crappy Excel spreadsheet that's more work than it's worth.
That was about three months ago.
Today I have 18th Street, MS-13, Bloods and Crips sitting across the table from each other. They talk about the game. They congratulate each other on good moves. They've gone from trying to sharpen toothbrushes to stab each other to sharpening their openings to show the other guy up. In the last three months, I haven't had to restrain a single juvenile on my unit. That's well below the other units' average.
I'd say chess definitely has a purpose other than a simple past-time.
Rael wrote:
Mr. DelaCruz
Sheesh.
a) it was a Star Wars reference. I was talking to Luke_Skywalker.
b) what're you offended by out of curiosity... the word "faith"?
c) I'm not sure if I should say "Welcome to the internet" here, and ask you how it's been working out for you to go around asking people to politely refrain from offending you, or to say Welcome to the planet Earth.
If the sentence "I find your lack of faith disturbing" really offends you, please do not leave your house. Ever. There's a real danger that you might see and/or hear things slightly worse, and requesting that these offenses politely refrain from offending you will not be 100% effective in all instances.
Here is an article written by a doctor in Darfur about a time the Janjaweed Arab militia raped school girls in a village in Sudan I read this morning, so you actually have something real to be offended about:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article4362968.ece
p.s. I find your mental fragility disturbing
Thank you for the article Rael.
I have a friend working in Darfur who told me this story and more but what is happening there never fails to lose its impact. Puts our comfortable easy lives in perspective. Sadly, it won't stop people complaining about trivial matters.