Obscure Knowlege Experts

This week, I passed out to 20 students confirmation that they were finalists in our school's Geography Bee. They were delighted. A couple of them were astonished...But, hey---you don't have to be in Mensa to be interested in maps, globes and the earth. So, in two weeks, we'll hold the final contest. Their parents are invited to watch, and then the last one standing will be awarded the medal and certificate that I have waiting in my classroom.

I asked our PTO to fund our registration this year because it has been several years since we even held the contest. It is sponsored by the National Geographic Society (naturally...) and we have a plaque in our library with the names of previous years' winners. But the last one posted there was a boy I know is in high school now. I had his little brother two years ago. So, I decided to just jump in and run it myself because I love geography, trivia contests, and giving students a chance to excel without a grade attached. Plus, I know how fun it is to watch your child be a winner in an event like this.

In fact, I even know how a grandma feels on these occasions! I came home from school, on the day I passed out the confirmations, only to read on Facebook how our granddaughter (6th grade) had won the Geography Bee in her school in Utah! And her brother (3rd grade) even made it into the contest as the only one in his level against the 4th, 5th and 6th graders. It's exciting! But not surprising...we love maps in our family. We've been geography nuts for generations.

Their mother was on a trivia team in high school. Their school had the reputation of being a sort of under-achieving place. Probably 2/3 of our parents picked strawberries for a living. It wasn't in the hoity-toity part of town. But, there was a lot of spirit! And one year, our daughter's team beat the fancy private high school in a tie-breaker nail-biter final! She helped by being the child of Wyoming people.That final question was "Which is the oldest National Park?" Naturally, all those California kids were thinking Yosemite. However, we watched from the audience, as our daughter vigorously made her case in the team huddle for Yellowstone. After all, we'd been visiting the grandma's the previous summer when all the Yellowstone Centennial festivities were going one. She convinced them, and --they won!! It was a great moment to remind the other students that, just because you might not live in the coolest part of town, it doesn't mean you aren't SMART!

She went on to be on the college trivia team, and eventually she even appeared on Jeopardy! And, of course, I've got a few game shows in my resume. So, we love facts in our family. We can't help it...there are words out there! And they must be read! Somehow, many of them stayed firmly in our brains, waiting for just the right moment when someone might really need to know where the taxidermied horse Trigger is on display, or what type of whale has a long sharp protuberance on its nose. You just never know.