gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07 … portunity/
What do you think the U.S. government’s definition of “intermediate” is? Class A? Class E?
gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07 … portunity/
What do you think the U.S. government’s definition of “intermediate” is? Class A? Class E?
It’s probably closer to Class E than A.
One of the blog’s commenters notes that it is a position for persons with prior Peace Corps service. So the pool is already limited to that group.
And I’d guess ‘intermediate’ falls between, “not an absolute beginner, does not have to be an expert.” That view would be supported by the Corps’ grades of language proficiency (novice, intermediate, advanced, superior, with low/medium/high strata.) Not that this has to be a parallel, but intermediate ranges from able to hold simple social conversation through speaking in paragraphs but not necessarily across all topics and may speak somewhat haltingly at times.
My guess is that in order to be an effective teacher, the chess instructor would need to at least be a C player. Players rated below that might be able to teach how the pieces move, but probably not much more than that.
Undefined term. They will presumably take what they can get, if they believe the candidate can function in the target environment. The candidate has to sell him(her)self and probably indicate what he(she) can do with minimal or no support. If PT had prior Peace Corps experience, he would be ideal for the job.
Hey – it’s a job. Lotsa people need a job these days.
My guess is that in order to be an effective teacher, the chess instructor would need to at least be a C player. Players rated below that might be able to teach how the pieces move, but probably not much more than that.
I’ll disagree a bit. I’d think that to be an effective teacher the instructor would first need to be able to teach. As far as skill goes, an E-player that knows the techniques should be able to show the simple mates and standard tactics.
I knew how the pieces moved for quite a while and was able to beat most of the other kids just based on what I could figure out on my own, but it wasn’t until I got hold of a simple tactics book (forks, skewers, pins, discoveries, seventh rank, etc.) that I improved enough to beat my great-uncle (our extended family’s “master”, probably 800-1200 strength).
I’ve known some groups that get E-players that are good with kids to teach those basics and then bring in higher rated teachers to teach more complex ideas.
I don’t think this is a teaching position as much as it is a program coordinator position. From what I can tell from the posting, it seems like the applicant would mainly be going around the country making sure that existing chess instruction programs are performing effectively.