Teachers nationwide are flummoxed by students' newfound chess obsession [View all]

“I guess I’m happier they are playing chess rather than some shoot-'em-up game. Actually, I love it,” said Otterby, a chess enthusiast. “I just need them to do it at a better time.”
It is not just Otterby’s crop of middle-schoolers in the St. Charles Community district. Across the country, students from second-grade to senior year have stumbled across a new obsession, which is in fact a centuries-old game. Interviews with teachers and students in eight states paint a picture of captivated students squeezing in games wherever and whenever they can: At lunch, at recess and illicitly during lessons, a phenomenon that is at once bemusing, frustrating and delighting teachers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/15/school-chess-class-clubs/

i’ve been answering folks wringing their hands about the decline in test scores since the plague w- kids are always learning. they didnt learn what u think is important, but trust me, they learned.
i’m thrilled that what they learned is to play chess!
as a former homeschool mom, i can assure you, kids are not only hardwired to always be learning, they’re hardwired to see what is going to be important in THEIR future. they’re generally better at this than the fogies telling them what to think