The first rule of Chess Club…
Date posted: 19-04-10
The first rule of Chess Club is: you do not talk about Chess Club. The second rule of Chess Club is: you DO NOT talk about Chess Club! – I’ve heard those rules somewhere before but I couldn’t resist sharing them again, especially after what happened to me at Chess Club last week.
Now, I don’t actually run the chess club at school but the teacher who does was sick so I stepped in to fill his shoes. When I was a student, the kids in the chess club were fairly quiet types so I assumed that sitting watching over a group of students playing chess would be a fairly easy thing to do at lunchtime.
The problem is, I forgot the 8th rule of Chess Club – If this is your first time at Chess Club, you have to play! I am a terrible chess player but lunchbreak is quite short so I figured if I could just not lose and hold out until the bell, I’d be able to walk away with my dignity intact.
No such luck! I lost, twice. Unfortunately, I had already broken the first rule of Chess Club before I even got there and told my colleagues what I was doing at lunch. When they asked me how it went later in the day, I had to admit to getting trounced twice.
Motto of the story? Chess Club has rules for a reason. Don’t break them!
Today’s image is by Fabibel.
April 20th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
It’s a hard lesson to learn when you discover that the children are actually much more talented than you are. Anyone who has squeaked their way embarrasingly through a recorder club, will agree. I’ve also had similar experiences with cookery and gardening. The horror. The horror. Great post.
April 21st, 2010 at 2:14 am
Thanks Teachercreature. They were, indeed, much more talented than I could ever hope to be at chess. I think I’d enjoy a cookery club, though. Not because I’m any good at cooking, but if the students were as good at cooking as they are at chess, cookery club lunches would beat regular school lunches hands-down.
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:27 am
[...] Hopefully with all this drama cleared up, the local council will be able to get schools to focus on areas where it’s really important to remove the competitive element – like Chess Club. [...]