Sunday 10 October 2021
Natural Ability
Imagine a school teacher with so much natural ability as a chess player that he could have aimed at becoming a world class player, even a world championship challenger. Yet on the whole he appears to have preferred teaching.
Henry Ernest Atkins (20 August 1872 – 31 January 1955) was a British chess master who is best known for his unparalleled record of winning the British Chess Championship nine times in eleven attempts. He won every year from 1905 to 1911, and again in 1924 and 1925. A schoolmaster, Atkins treated chess as a hobby, devoting relatively little time to it and playing in only a handful of international tournaments. He was an extremely gifted player who would likely have become one of the world's leading players had he pursued the game more single-mindedly.
Atkins even dropped competitive chess completely for over a decade.
After the 1911 Championship, Atkins retired completely from tournament chess for the next 11 years. He later remarked, "I really can't say why I didn't play after 1911 for so many years."
By way of contrast, today we are plagued with celebrities who appear to have no natural ability at all. And MPs. And...
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7 comments:
When I was a lad I used to repair the families' and relatives' TVs and radios (valves and early transistors). They though this was wonderful and asked why I wasn't going to study electronics at University. I told them that I enjoyed electronics as a hobby but I didn't want to do it as a job.
"By way of contrast, today we are plagued with celebrities who appear to have no natural ability at all. And MPs. And..."
And today we are plagued with teachers who appear to have no natural ability in anything.
@Sam Vega
Those that can, do.
Those that can't, teach.
Those that can't do or teach become bureaucrats.
DJ: From experience of twenty years working in secondary schools I modified that a while ago.
Those that can, do.
Those that can't, teach.
Those who can't teach,teach PE
Those who can't teach PE become headmasters.
Aaand - failed head teachers (let's not be sexist) become educationalists.
DJ - I worked with a chap who repaired TVs and radios for friends, family and neighbours. He was very good with electronics yet never took it up as a career.
Sam - teachers our grandson encounters in secondary school certainly don't seem to be very good. Granddaughter seems to have better teachers in a CofE junior school.
Jannie - Those that can't also go into politics unfortunately.
Doonhamer - do head teachers fail? They seem to cling on for ages.
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