Two stories from ABC news.
“Chess is the great Equalizer” exclaims Salone Thomas-El, principal of Thomas Edison Charter School in Wilmington, Delaware. And, Principal Denise Bell states ” ….building a community ….with students that believe they can conquer the world if they set their minds to it. ” Check it out . *
“These are inner-city students in some very high-crime, high-poverty areas. These children are playing chess and graduating high school and going to some of the top colleges and law schools in the nation,” Thomas-El said.
“It’s important for Black and Latina girls to learn chess because many times opportunities may not come their way because of either their circumstances or the environments they’re in,” Thomas-El said.”
Thomas-El said his proudest moments as an educator do not come just from watching his students win trophies, but from watching them succeed in life. Many of the girls he’s coached in chess have gone on to attend schools like Cornell and the University of Virginia on scholarships, he said. Some of them became teachers themselves and come back to help their community.
- * Please note the story in the video is not the same as the story in the article. The story in the article is about Thomas Edison Charter School in Delaware. The story in the video is about St. Ethelreda School in Chicago.
