Sunshine Connections: “Brooklyn Castle” inspiration for Florida chess-in-school programs
All Roads Lead To Brooklyn
The award-winning documentary film “Brooklyn Castle” continues to inspire city government officials in Florida, who are trying to incorporate academic chess programs into the lower grades. Learning chess has proven to strengthen a child’s ability to exercise memory, pattern recognition and decision making.
For example, earlier this year in Hungary, the Hungarian Institute for Educational Research and Development released a supplement to the National Curriculum that makes chess an available subject for elementary schools. Last year, the European Parliament adopted a written resolution titled “Chess in School” to draw attention to chess as a teaching tool, because the European Parliament believes learning chess has direct connections to academic performance. Forty-two other countries around the world require chess in their curriculum.