My 17-year-old son recently was away playing in a chess tournament. As a parent of a child who has been playing in chess tournaments since he was 8, I find myself wavering between feelings of amazement and disappointment. The kids I've met over the years at chess competitions are an amazing lot. They remain calm under pressure, endure long hours of intense concentration yet somehow manage to stay focused and analytical. While other sports depend at least in part on luck, winning chess players succeed by outthinking and outmaneuvering their opponents. What I find disappointing is how little attention chess players receive for their achievements. Our ...

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Full article from the Orlando Sentinel:

Chess doesn't get respect it deserves -- OrlandoSentinel.com

Coincidentally, this kid (the 17 year old son of the article's author) is the highest rated opponent I've ever played in a tournament game. I think he's around 2160 USCF. He clobbered me 8 days ago when I went up to Orlando for a major tournament. That's the game I was talking about in my improvement thread when I said that I forgot to wake up for a Sunday morning game. My body was at the board, but not my mind - it was the worst slow game I've played in a very long time. I don't mind getting outplayed, but the fact that I didn't even give him a decent fight bugged me.

--Fromper

Read Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning.
It is not just about Chess.
In today's world children have computers. Computers come with Chess software, and Chess Master, Fritz and so on are available. There are probably 42.9 million chess websites. When I first went on the web around 1999 there were a few thousand. A few years later 200,000. A few years after that 20 million+. Chess sites are doubling.
There are also chess computers by Novag, Excalibur, and others. Some claim to be in 2200+ category.
Children never have to leave the house to learn chess.
But we must remember Chess is a game. College Alumni are never going to contribute to chess club the way they do to Chem lab, History or language Chair.
I have to imagine that in the time of Steinitz, and later Lasker, Tarrasch, Chess was an intellectual pursuit more so than a game.