Even if you have never heard of Academic Decathlon before, this is an incredibly inspiring story of personal achievement that I witnessed first hand yesterday.
You can read a short article here, about the event described below.
AcaDeca is an awesome program that is an incredibly challenging academic competition for high school students. I have coached our school's team for each of the past 8 years and have been fortunate enough to have kids who worked hard enough to take us to the State finals in the small school division each of these years.
If you are not familiar with Academic Decathlon, it takes enormous preparation to compete. This year's main topic was "Latin America" (recent topics have been China, the Civil War and Lewis & Clark among others). The students take 50 question multiple choice tests in the areas of Language/Literature, Art, Music, Economics, Mathematics and Social Science (most, this year, with an emphasis on Latin America). The day includes with the "Super Quiz" which is open to the public, a structured 30 question test split between 3 groups of two for each team. The Super Quiz topic this year was Evolutionary Biology (take that, Kansas School Board!) Additionally at State, each team member delivers both a prepared and impromptu speech, is interviewed and writes an essay. What is real awesome is it's not just for the best students. A full team includes at least 2 people at three academic levels equivalent to A, B and C gpa.
Some of the larger schools around here take it very seriously. They are able to offer it as a class and often have 40-60 students take the class, while only 12 of those can compete. (By contrast, my school offers it is an extracurricular, we meet two times a week, do mostly independent studies) There is a huge rivalry between Omaha Burke (public) and Creighton Prep (Catholic). In my 8 years only these two have ever been the top team overall at State. (we don't compete directly against these schools since they are 'large' and we are 'small' . . . btw in my tenure we have finished 2nd twice and 3rd thrice.)
So, to the story. On Friday night and at the Super Quiz, I noticed that each of the public gatherings where all teams were present happened to have two signers switching back and forth. That had never happened before, so I concluded that one of the competitors was deaf.
At the end of the day Saturday is the (incredibly and ridiculously long) awards ceremony. There are very nice Olympic style First, second and third place medals given at each of three academic levels for each of the events. With 18 schools and somewhere around 120 competitors, there's a lot of awards and a lot of applause. Anyway, you quickly notice who the "super stars" are because they are being called up for medals in every category.
There was this one tall, gangly, curly haired kid with a huge smile from Burke who kept getting called up for medal after medal. At one point I noticed that some of my kids were holding their arms in the air and wiggling their fingers. It took me a few seconds, but I asked the kid next to me what that was about and she said, "He's deaf!" I looked up at the stage and noticed the tall, gangly, curly haired kid with a huge smile was on stage. I then realized the kids were applauding him in sign language (which, stupid me, I should have known immediately since my wife works at a school for the deaf!) And he kept going back up again and again and again and again . . . 10 TIMES! The kid won at least a bronze in each of the 10 categories. By contrast, the best student I ever had (who is now at Harvard) was amazing and won maybe 6 medals at once.
So, near the end of the program there is a special, giant size medal given for the highest scoring competitor at State. And wouldn't you know it, this kid gets called up! 11 freakin' medals! His teammates and the school's cheering section went absolutely nuts. My kids were smiling from ear to ear and standing on their chairs clapping. A couple had seen him around and said he was really nice. I could tell they were in total awe of what he had just done since they know how much work it takes to get to State.
All of these kids are incredible; sacrificing long hours for prepartion and being part of a team whose expressed purpose is to learn, in great detail, about things they never knew. Academic Decathlon is always inspiring for me as I look out with pride and hope at the future of our country and world. But this year it was even more inspiring to me than ever.
I know things are depressing and difficult for many of us and for many others right now, but I am hopeful that our country will eventually emerge from this mess renewed and refocused on our responsibilities and possibilities.
We have recently chosen for ourselves a great leader for our immediate future. And I have witnessed with my own eyes the ones who will lead us beyond that future.