A friend recently lent me a book by Donald Miller called To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing Up Without a Father which I have been making my way through. It’s a good book that’s informally written and as you would expect focuses on finding purpose and identity without a father figure. In one part of the book, Miller talks of a man called Salome Thomas-El, a teacher in Philadelphia who received acclaim as a teacher and chess coach whose students have gone on to win world recognition as Eight-Time National Chess Champions. Miller tells what he learnt of Thomas-EL:

[Salome] would walk up to kids hanging around outside a convenience store and ask them if they wanted to learn to play chess. Of course the kids said no, chess not being the most fashionable sport on the playground. So Salome would tell them that telling him no was a bad decision, that if someone offers to teach you something, you should give that person respect, and ask more questions to find out if you might need this information in the future. That was a bad decision, Salome said to the kids, to dismiss me in that way. The kids didn’t really know what to say, so they got tough threatening him. Ah, Salome would say, another bad decision. I can see that, if you and I were playing chess right now, you would be losing, because in chess, you cannot make bad decisions and win. You have to make good decisions.

“Have any of you ever played chess?” Salome asked.

“I know how to play chess”, one of the kids answered.

“What is the legal move for a Rook?” Salome asked the boy. The boy stood there silently until finally Salome spoke into his shifting eyes, “You are telling a lie aren’t you? You do not know how to play chess. A lie is another bad decision. If you knew how to play chess, you would not make so many bad decisions. You would know, intrinsically, the way to get ahead in life is to make good decisions. And so I will ask you again, and I want you to think about it for five seconds before you answer me. Don’t answer right away, because this isn’t wise. I want you to think about what I am going to ask you…

“Do you want me to teach you how to play chess?”

The children stood there, confused but interested, until one of them blurted out nervously, “Yes, I want to learn chess.”

“Fine then. You have made a good decision. This is the first rule of chess. Make good decisions. The only possible way you can lose in chess, and for that matter in life itself, is to make bad decisions. If you do not make bad decisions, you will not lose in chess, or in life. And the more good decisions you make, the better your life will be.”

I’m fascinated by this idea of good and bad decisions. Is this what youth workers are essentially trying to do, enable young people to make informed choices? Is it really that simple? Can young people learn key life skills from playing chess?

When I read this part of the book, I looked up Salome Thomas-El on Google and found his website I Choose To Stay.com. It seems that after gaining recognition for his work, Salome was offered a promotion with greater authority but turned it down to stay with his students.

“I can’t leave my students,” he said. “What happens if they come in on Monday and I’m not here? They’ll say ‘He left because of the money,’ and I don’t want them to think that way. I’m the only male role model these kids have. I want them to know at least one black male who is committed to staying.”

I expect much of Salome’s success is due to his character and his faith in the potential of others. I now plan to get hold of one of his books and find out more about his ideas.