On Sun, 20 May 2007 01:18:00 GMT, "Chess One"
wrote:

OK, I've read the editorial and it contains some comments I find
disturbing.

Let's follow the money for a while.

Getting chess formally into the schools is a potential gravy train for
people who want to be coaches and administrators. You want to make a
living at chess without competing for prizes or selling books and
sets? Having trouble getting students because your rating is under
2300? Become a chess coach, salaried by the state, the feds, private
schools. Jobs will open up at the grammar school, high school, and
college level. And you don't have to be a Grandmaster to get one of
these jobs, any more than your average high-school basketball coach
has to be an NBA vet. But you will have to be certified.

Who controls access to that gravy train? Those who own, control or
manage the certification program for chess coaches. Salaries ought
to be pretty good for those positions, especially if they grow into
tenure track jobs at the college level.

Says Korenman: "The certification program... if applied correctly,
should help to clear the problem who can and can not teach chess at
schools....Not everyone can coach basketball or tennis at schools, but
anyone can be a chess coach. It should be changed."

But you better tread lightly when dealing with the certification
folks:

Says Korenman: "USCF should use the organizational right to take
membership away from people who proved to be problem-makers."

Says Polgar: " In major sports such as the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc., if
players say derogatory things about other players, about league
officials or the sponsors, the players would get fined and sometimes
even suspended."

If you tick off the power structure, you can be kicked out of the
USCF, can't play in tournaments, can't teach. Is that what this
means?

Paul Truong states the USCF shouldn't control certification -- this
should be left in the hands of one of the various private foundations:

Truong: "In regards to developing standards and certifications for
chess teachers, I do not think the USCF should be investing the time
and resource to do this.... it is better to reach out and partner up
with organizations like the AF4C, the SPF or the Karpov School of
Chess, etc. It is better to leave it to the hands of the experts."