Dr. Danny McDermott

There are two ways to be starving. One is to be lacking food. The other is to go without love, respect, recognition, support, and someone to care for and challenge you. When Danny McDermott came to Harriet Tubman School in Chicago as a teacher in 1994, he encountered children who were hungry for all these things. Coming from a background of teaching in privileged schools, he felt at a loss as to how to reach the students in his inner-city sixth-grade class. That is, until he reached into his own life for something that had made a difference—chess.

Supported by his principal, but ridiculed by other staff, McDermott headed to Kmart to buy 30 $3 chess sets, and the “Peaceful Warrior” chess program was born. What happened next, was miraculous. McDermott’s classroom, students, and ultimately the whole school and community were transformed. We Are Starving is the inspirational, real-life story of how a teacher transformed Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Chicago from being “just another inner-city school” to the home of a champion chess program that produced a kindergarten chess team that placed fourth in the nation and a sixth-grade team that won the Chicago city chess title three years in a row.