Winning on time

SIMONE AVRATINER is not a morning person.

It had been years - truly - since the fourth-grader had regularly made it to Louis H. Farrell Elementary School before the bell, so fiercely did she resist getting up and out the door.

Her mom, Faina, and her teachers tried everything... But their discussions, bribes, threats and pleas did nothing to reform the child's chronic school tardiness.

Finally, her mom and Farrell principal Marie McCarthy pulled a smart move: If Simone didn't get to school on time, no more chess club for her.

Check!

"I didn't think it would work," says Faina Avratiner, "because nothing else had."

But the next day, Simone was at her desk when the bell rang. And for the next 25 days, she wasn't late once - the longest on-time streak she'd ever had.

Read "Chess has unexpected benefits" from the Philadelphia Daily News.