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| author | Franklin Schmidt <fschmidt@gmail.com> |
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| date | Sun, 02 Apr 2023 10:30:03 -0600 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/src/NoAlt.html Sun Apr 02 10:30:03 2023 -0600 @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ +<html> + +<!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/NoAlt.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 06:49:33 GMT --> +<head> +<title></title> +</head> +<body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> +<a name="There Is No Satisfactory Alternative T"> +<p><strong><hr> +</strong> +<br wp="br1"><br wp="br2"> +<p><strong>There Is No Satisfactory Alternative To Go</strong> + +<p><strong>© 2002 Milton N. Bradley</a></strong> + +<p>As one of the world's great strategic board games, Chess shares certain important characteristics +with Go that also makes it a valuable pedagogical adjunct to the standard curriculum, and it has +often been used in that role outside the Orient in places where Go was unknown. As Shelby +Lyman noted in his nationally syndicated Chess column in Long Island's premiere newspaper +Newsday on Sept 10, 1991, "Chess works in an educational environment because ......it is a +sport....and it is played for fun." He continued "... children playing Chess engage their full +intellect, will and strength to a remarkable extent. They alertly attend the chessboard: observing, +remembering, generating ideas, testing those ideas, making decisions and mistakes and learning +from those mistakes." He concluded "Chess has an advantage over most school subjects: it +combines both theory and practice. Ideas are honed and tested in the crucible of competitive play. +Poor formulation or poor execution of ideas loses games. Careless, faulty thinking is ruthlessly +refuted on the chessboard." + +<p>The validity of Lyman's contention that Chess can improve student performance was recently +abundantly demonstrated in New York City's Mott Hall School, as reported by Brent Staples in +the Sunday New York Times of Dec 15, 2002, and described in considerable detail in the section +of this web page entitled "Teaching The New 'R' Of Reasoning". + +<p><em><strong>Go is far superior to Chess as a pedagogical tool because it not only fully shares <u>all</u> of these +considerable assets, but also possesses several others of transcendent importance that <u>Chess +lacks almost completely</u>:</strong></em> + +<p><UL type = disc> + +<p><LI> Most readily apparent is Go's far greater accessibility, especially by the very young. It is +free of all the artificial complexities (e.g. different piece moves, promotion, castling, en passant +capture, etc.) that beset Chess. The structure of Go is as simple and almost as easy to learn in +rudimentary fashion as Checkers, so it is possible for almost anyone to quickly and effortlessly +begin playing it. + +<p><LI> The rigid starting setup of Chess vastly reduces the number of options available, thereby +inhibiting the free flow of the player's imagination. In contrast, <em>the Go board starts empty and +the players create their own unique structure in every game, thus allowing full reign to their +creativity and imagination.</em> + +<p><LI> The simplistic objective of Chess of catching the opposing King together with its small 8 x +8 square scale and constricting starting lineup lead to a "quick kill" mentality in which the +capture of some material or a successful "mating attack" on the opposing King can lead to an +instant win. The result is a game that is very strongly biased toward the tactical, with very little +opportunity for the development of much more than elemental strategy. In contrast, the 19 x 19 +line Go board has enormous scale. Coupled with the need to trade off short term profits and their +costs against the possibility of later achieving greater long term gain, this leads to incredibly +profound strategy whose realization depends upon the precise execution of tactics every bit as +incisive as those of Chess. <em><strong>This gives Go an entire dimension for intellectual development +almost entirely lacking in Chess.</em></strong> + +<p><LI> Perhaps most important of all, the vast scale of the Go board makes it impossible to +precisely calculate anticipated outcomes during the crucial opening stages of the game, and this +requires the players to rely entirely upon general strategic principles and such right brain +functions as pattern recognition and "instinct". <em><strong>This integration of right and left brain function +provided by Go is crucial to the complete development of the brain, and is also almost +completely lacking in Chess (or any other known human activity).</em></strong> + +<p>This unique integration of left and right brain function in playing Go was recently directly +demonstrated for the first time by MRI brain scans, in experiments described in the report +referenced in the section of this web page "Comparison Between Chess and Go". + +<p></UL> + +<p>For these reasons, <em><strong>Go</em> not only provides <em>unlimited scope</em> for even the most brilliant to +exercise their mental capabilities to the fullest, but <em>an effectiveness in improving the brain +function and academic performance of even underachievers unmatched by any other known +pedagogical mechanism.</em></strong> +<a name="Caveats "></a> +<p><u><strong>Caveats</u></strong> + +<p>There are some significant caveats that must be addressed in implementing a school Go program, +especially in the US: + +<p><UL type = disc> + +<p><LI> Most important is the realization that <em>Go is not a form of magic wand</em>, despite the +enormous benefits that its participants ultimately enjoy. Mere brief exposure to the elegant basic +concepts of Go and occasional casual play may be pleasurable, but will <u>not</u> result in substantive +salutary changes in the student's thinking processes or study habits! + +<p><em><strong>The benefits Go provides can <u>only</u> be achieved over a period of months and years during +which the student actively studies and plays Go, and progresses well into the advanced stages +of skill.</em> </strong>The reason is that a deep understanding of and ability to appropriately address the +complex interactions between Go's strategy, tactics, and elegant structural concepts are what +actually improve the student's intellectual capabilities. Coupled with Go's subtle development +and inculcation of improved study habits, this then translates into improved academic +performance. + +<p><LI> It is this "rewiring" of the brain to enable it to efficiently engage in the kind of <em> advanced +REASONING</em> essential to both playing Go and solving real world problems that is most readily +accomplished at about age 4 or 5. As noted in some detail in the section of this web page +"Teaching The New 'R' Of Reasoning", the ideal learning method for such young children is +largely but not wholly informal, supplemented by a small irreducible minimum of formal +instruction. Unfortunately, the ideal combination of conditions to permit using this preferred +method does not routinely exist anywhere in the US today outside a very few Oriental +communities. Therefore there is no practical alternative to a more formal, intrinsically less +desirable (but still effective) approach. + +<p><LI> In Japan, Go is a well established and highly respected cultural/social activity and almost +every child is already aware of its existence long before entering school, so participation in an in-school Go program is fairly readily obtained and accepted. In the US Go is almost completely +unknown to all but a few students of Oriental extraction. Far worse, in our basically anti-intellectual society, activities like playing Go are also often characterized by many students and +parents as "nerdy", and are viewed disapprovingly. Overcoming this erroneous negative +preconception may constitute a formidable challenge, at least until the program is well +established and its value demonstrated beyond question. + +<p></UL> + +<p><a href="SHUNTGO.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong>Continue</strong></Font></a> + +<p>Click Here To Return To<a href="index.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong> Milt's Go +Page</strong></Font></a> + +<p><hr> + +<br wp="br1"><br wp="br2"> +</body> + +<!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/NoAlt.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 06:49:33 GMT --> +</html>