Young Achievers Should Be High-Priority News

Sat., May 20, 2000

Annie Bouscal Special To Opinion

I would like to sing the praises of the many young people who participated in the recent Math is Cool championships. Students took individual math tests of 40 questions and then they participated in team events, including sections in mental math, team multiple choice, team fill-in-the-blank and a College Knowledge Bowl.

Thousands of students, ranging in age from 9 to 18, participated. The Lewis and Clark High School math team organized competitions for each grade level, starting at fourth grade and going through high school. This year, in addition to running the local tournaments in Spokane, they also assisted with a state-level master’s competition for the top individuals and teams from Spokane, Seattle and Moses Lake.

In the past few years, the local competitions have almost doubled in numbers of teams competing. This year, there were 82 teams of four students each, competing at fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade levels. Altogether, there were more than 2,000 contestants participating in this year’s championships. At all levels, these were extremely well-organized, well-run events. The young people who helped with these events gave up hours and hours of their own time to work as proctors, scorers and “room runners.” They all deserve kudos for a job well done.

The students who participated as contestants also deserve praise. In most cases, they gave up free time to prepare themselves for the stiff competition they knew they would face. They studied hard and challenged each other to reach higher levels. In my book, they were all winners.

In a day and age where we hear so much negativity about - and directed to - our youth, I think it is important to focus on and highlight the many positive things our youth are doing.

Before the master’s level competition in Moses Lake, I contacted this newspaper and two Spokane television stations. I asked them to cover the event. I was politely told no, it was too far away, there was not enough interest to warrant coverage and they didn’t think they had enough news staff to cover it because of the weekend. Excuse me, but these are our future rocket scientists we are talking about. It’s important to give academic achievements equal time in the media alongside sports events. I think our young people deserve all the encouragement they can get.

Local journalism is essential.

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