SCR 41, Hancock. Chess Month.
This measure designates October as Chess Month, encourages the people of California to observe Chess Month with appropriate programs and activities, and encourages schools to include chess as an educational tool in their classrooms.
WHEREAS, Designating October as California’s Chess Month would enhance awareness and encourage students and adults to engage in a game known to enhance critical thinking, determination, self-esteem, problem solving skills, and serves as a gateway to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education; and
WHEREAS, There are 9,294 members of the United States Chess Federation in the State of California, and unknown numbers of additional people in California who play the game without joining an official organization; and
WHEREAS, More than one-half of California’s members are scholastic members, and many of the scholastic members join by the age of eight; and
WHEREAS, There are more than 80,000 members of the United States Chess Federation, and more than 2,000 affiliated chess clubs and organizations today; and
WHEREAS, In 1992, New Jersey Governor Jim Florio signed into law a bill to establish chess instruction in public schools and cited, “In countries where chess is offered widely in schools students exhibit excellence in the ability to recognize complex patterns and consequently excel in math and science”; and
WHEREAS, Former United States Secretary of Education Terrel Bell encouraged knowledge of chess as a way to develop a preschooler’s intellect and academic readiness; and
WHEREAS, In Western Pennsylvania, more than 70 schools and a dozen libraries offer chess programs, reaching several thousand students each year; and
WHEREAS, In 2000, a report found that students who received chess instruction scored significantly higher on all measures of academic achievement, including math, spatial analysis, and nonverbal reasoning ability; and
WHEREAS, America’s Foundation for Chess has been working with 2nd and 3rd grade students and their teachers to promote the use of chess as an educational tool through their First Move curriculum to increase higher level thinking skills, advance math and reading skills, and build self-confidence; and
WHEREAS, Independent studies conducted by the Kensington Research Group in partnership with the Berkeley Chess School for the 2011-12 school year in two of Oakland’s Title I schools have linked chess programs to the improvement of student scores in the San Francisco Bay area in reading and math; and
WHEREAS, A 2013 independent study conducted by the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Development of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, highlighting chess skill acquisition and development, showed dramatic increase in students’ fluid reasoning, as well as enhancing students’ ability to better handle stressful situations, which positively influence decisionmaking; and
WHEREAS, Chess is a powerful cognitive learning tool that can be used to successfully enhance reading and math concepts; and
WHEREAS, Chess engages students of all learning styles and strengths and promotes problem solving and higher level thinking skills; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates October as California’s Chess Month, encourages the people of California to observe Chess Month with appropriate programs and activities, and encourages schools to include chess as an educational tool in their classrooms.
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