College Degree In Chess

I don't have the cash right now.

 Is that because of all the mean Mormons that live on those streets ? 

High quality electives are needed in secondary education, grades 7-12. I've been an electives teacher since 1985, in music.

It would be practical if both secondary education and the colleges believed that chess would be a legitimate elective and offered courses for obtaining a teaching credential. Then, a person could earn a single subject credential, grades K-12 in chess, and make good money. I would say more money than most struggling I.M.'s and G.M's. who have to get a job doing something outside of their expertise, which I think is a waste of human resources and talent.

Titled players could consider going back to college to get a teaching credential in chess and make good money doing what they love. Think of the number of students who could benefit from taking their elective classes in chess, and earn high school credits.

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As to performance versus knowledge, a clarification is in order. I earned a performance degree in music, not an education degree. The teaching certification, at the time, was a 5th year program, after the Bachelor's degree. It is now bundled as part of a Master's degree.

As a performance major, I had to prove that I could actually play a musical instrument at a high level. It was very rigorous, as I had to pass performance exams in front of judges in both classical and jazz guitar.

This could be done for the Bachelor’s program in chess. The student would need to be able to beat a master chess player as part of his final exam. In the Master’s program, this young master chess player could then nail down a teaching credential and then make money teaching in the classroom, with full medical and dental coverage, and a pension.  BTW…a master’s degree places one higher on the pay scale.

Is this for everyone? No. But think of the many potential master level chess players that are currently playing scholastic chess today. They would have the option to pursue a career in education teaching chess. Now how cool would that be?

@Musikamole ~ you might find this interesting. it was posted in another forum topic - Are all chess players weird?

i did not go to college. if they offered chess, i would have jumped on that. as it was i dropped out at 16. i do have a GED. i went to a tech school for Computer Programming... which i did love at the time.

i think our educational system is lacking greatly. it does not meet the true needs of people. a job and money is one thing... but truly enjoying what you do... well, you know... priceless.

the careers that make the most money seem soulless to me... lawyers for example. i work for them... better phrased as i slave for them. granted they pay pretty well for my sweat. i do enjoy the actual work. but i don't love it.

my advice to my daughters was a bit cliche... study what you love. you do not need much money to be happy. you do need to love what you do.

my oldest has a BA in theater, with course work towards an MFA, now studying for an MBA. she owns a production company. she works at a bank. she hates it but it is a steady paycheck until her production company takes off... and they are paying for the MBA.

my youngest is majoring in clarinet performance and French International Business. she plans to go grad school in Canada to study moose. i think she plans to own a moose ranch in Canada and play her clarinet for the moose. nice gig if you can get it. she will always have her music. and she loves it.

my bad... here are the links that go with my comment above...

http://www.thechessdrum.net/talkingdrum/TheMatrix/index.html

http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2010/03/11/the-matrix-man-still-at-it/

courtesy of paulbunyan

you could be a world famous drinker of poison

normally when you are killed by poison you are soon forgotten

It's a fine analogy for the beginning chess player, like me, entering college and leaving with an 1800 rating and a license to teach public school. That would be very cool, but I am nearing retirement. I'm thinking about possibilities for our youth.

What do you think about a chess college for the experienced scholastic chess player?  Music students get accepted each year to schools like Juilliard. Those students study with active professional musicians and leave prepared to teach and play professionally.

A serious scholastic player would leave a chess college with both a title from tournament play and a teaching credential that would pay the bills. The game of chess would grow stronger in any country that commits to this.

Good points. 

More people playing better chess...that sounds like a contribution to the chess world by itself.

Maybe one of those chess teachers working in the trenches will discover the next Bobby Fischer, or some other great player. That too would be a contribution to the chess world.

Titles are your degree.  No diploma, or tuition, needed.  School of hard knocks indeed.

Titles don't give you a license to teach in a public school. Why not have a chess college for the up and coming tournament players so that when they wish to leave the tournament grind, settle down and raise a family, they have one more option available for income, a public school teaching credential to teach chess.

A few things come to mind.

You don't need a title to teach chess to regular kids in school.  In fact, all you need to know are the rules.

There's no market for highly skilled chess teachers in the classroom (at least in the states) so it's not really a thing to fall back on.

Up and comming tournament players aren't out of highschool themselves .

There would be a market if chess became an elective in high school, some day. We would need chess organiztions like USCF and FIDE to be advocates for chess instruction in the high schools, taught by certified chess instructors, not guys like me who read a few chess books.

As I need to do in music at elementary schools every year, chess will need to be talked up, extrinsic values attached, i.e., students will be more successful in academics, even though we believe chess has intrinsic value.

I find learning and becoming skilled in chess far more challenging than any of my 4 degrees, including an MBA and a PhD. The comparison does not seem to work as there is no competition or memorization involved at the Masters/Doctorate level though there is a heavy emphasis on research, like chess. Though I would not give any of my degrees up for an IM/GM title, I think attaining those chess titles are more difficult.

I think people, as frequently is the case, underestimate how much harder each step up the ladder is in chess.

27% of Americans (and I apologize for just using them, but those are the numbers I have) get a college degree of some kind, at least an associate's. But out of that 27%, 33% will get an advanced degree (beyond bachelors) and 11% will go on to earn a  PhD. Basically, each step up the ladder, about 2/3rds of the previous level will drop off.

The steps up the chess ladder drop a much higher percentage.

I understand, not fully, the extreme difficulty in becoming a master chess player. It's probably easier to go to medical school to become a brain surgeon, than it is to become a Grand Master at chess.

That's not my point, and sorry if my point has evolved a bit. A certain percentage of the current crop of scholastic chess players will go on to becoming titled players. Does anyone know what that percentage is, btw?

If these future titled players had a chance to make a living teaching chess at a public school, with a decent salary, full medical/dental/vision, plus a pension, wouldn't that be a win/win for the schools and the titled players, as an option?

As I said before, chess would need to become a real elective in the public schools to make all of this possible. Last, titled players could teach and still compete in tournaments. Their competitive years need not stop when they start teaching, or do they?

Titled players that work for chess.com teach and still compete. However, I'm not sure how much it hurts their ability to compete and keep improving.

In some ways, this conversation is kind of silly because people have different talents. You can't say it's written in stone that this undertaking is harder than that one. I would bet big money that most brain surgeons could never become GMs, and most GMs could never become brain surgeons.

Actually, there's not much to brain surgery, since it's the final frontier of organs, with so little known about it. Those guys just drill holes in mens skulls and do basic stuff, like remove a growth or relieve some pressure.

My uncle once fell down the stairs and required holes drilled into his skull to release the pressure. 

Last, it's not like a brain surgeon knows how to rewire someone's brain and turn them into a Grand Master.

Sounds like a colossal waste of money.  Having a chess club, or even an occasional elective course, in Chess doesn't sound like a terrible idea, but I wouldn't consider a full time Chess teaching position to be a good use of my tax dollars.

Maybe at a private school.  Then if you want to pay for it, it's your choice.

 Do you have any idea how much sbhool you have to go through to be a brain surgeon? Butt loads, and Boat loads. Personally, I don't think a school chess coach should have to have a teaching degree. Just a certain rating, and an ability to teach.

Not sure if you could call it a degree but I think you have to do some years worth of schooling to become a certified FIDE Senior Trainer