Yes, they finally caught me.
A few years ago I was driving around Orofino and this crazy idea struck me. "What if I did chess in the prisons?" I stopped by the Orofino jail and asked around what I needed to do to get such a program off the ground. I met with the prison's volunteer liaison and began filling out forms and had to attend a mentor class that happens only once a year in Lewiston. After all this, the warden rejected my offer because I was accountable to no one - The Chess Guy is a lone wolf so to speak and they felt that wasn't "secure" enough.
So a few years later Dave Manley, who is now an instructor at the Orofino jail, approached me with the same idea. After again filling out several forms the paperwork is done and now I can teach and play chess in the prisons with Dave's oversight!
Know that I don't teach chess just for fun. It is a true ministry to me. Chess is a truly fundamental brain game that builds up not just logic skills, but memory, IQ, and social stamina. What I mean by social stamina is the ability to compete with a person with all you have and yet remain friends off the board. I think this skill is especially lacking in our modern Social Justice Warrior types that will, for example, unfriend me on Facebook if I don't agree with them on some key issue. This kind of intolerance for a diverse opinion fractures our society and causes needless divisions. Some of the best friends I know very much disagree with me in some area.
I can't think of a more therapeutic game than Chess in the prisons. Their bodies are trapped but their minds need not be. Problem solving and some social interaction can't hurt under such circumstances.
A few years ago I was driving around Orofino and this crazy idea struck me. "What if I did chess in the prisons?" I stopped by the Orofino jail and asked around what I needed to do to get such a program off the ground. I met with the prison's volunteer liaison and began filling out forms and had to attend a mentor class that happens only once a year in Lewiston. After all this, the warden rejected my offer because I was accountable to no one - The Chess Guy is a lone wolf so to speak and they felt that wasn't "secure" enough.
So a few years later Dave Manley, who is now an instructor at the Orofino jail, approached me with the same idea. After again filling out several forms the paperwork is done and now I can teach and play chess in the prisons with Dave's oversight!
Know that I don't teach chess just for fun. It is a true ministry to me. Chess is a truly fundamental brain game that builds up not just logic skills, but memory, IQ, and social stamina. What I mean by social stamina is the ability to compete with a person with all you have and yet remain friends off the board. I think this skill is especially lacking in our modern Social Justice Warrior types that will, for example, unfriend me on Facebook if I don't agree with them on some key issue. This kind of intolerance for a diverse opinion fractures our society and causes needless divisions. Some of the best friends I know very much disagree with me in some area.
I can't think of a more therapeutic game than Chess in the prisons. Their bodies are trapped but their minds need not be. Problem solving and some social interaction can't hurt under such circumstances.