ABSTRACT
Endgames in chess are concerned with the appropriate strategies for bringing a game to a successful conclusion. The opening moves, often well known and routinized, and the mid-game with its openness, its infinite possibilities, have now long passed and just a few pieces remain on the board. Schooling has never concerned itself much with the whole process and how it should achieve a sense of completion, a completion where possibilities remain open, but a stage of life is marked as joyfully completed. Information technology will not radically alter the situation by itself. Continuing with the metaphor, the programming language of computers has added new vocabularies for millions of people and provided new associations for familiar words. The metaphor is, of course, only a metaphor. And many would be horrified to think that children should be encouraged to become independent negotiators of their own fate. Intelligence is not a finished product, nor a given quotient of ability.
